Prometheus's Gift
by ShearViscosity
Summary: 20 years after the Battle of Hogwarts, a witch, Muggle, and Squib unite to take down the wizarding world by using Muggle technology. Meanwhile, a certain Auror is on the case and is determined to stop them. Completed.
1. Something Wicked This Way Comes

I do not own the rights to Harry Potter. If I did, Fred would still be alive.

I would also like to thank everybody at the Harry Potter Wiki for refreshing my memory of the series and helping me get my facts straight.

**Something Wicked This Way Comes**

There was a slight chill to the August air; a sign that an early winter was on its way. On any other normal day, the witches and wizards that were shopping along Diagon Alley might have commented about the weather. Except it was not any other day in Diagon Alley. For something that was thought to be impossible, had been discovered that morning. Since accurate details were still scare, there was much debate in the streets on what had occurred.

"I heard some veela managed to charm their way into the vaults," whispered one witch to her friend.

"Rubbish," replied a wizard who overheard the conversation, "Everyone knows goblins love their gold more than they love women. Besides, I heard it was a group of rogue house-elves."

The wind carried their conversation over to some teenagers who were sitting at Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor. While the Fortescue it was named for had long been dead due to Death Eaters, a relative had reopened it after Voldemort's final defeat during the Second War twenty years ago. The Ministry of Magic encouraged such progress as part of their 'Return to Normalcy' campaign, designed to help the wizarding world recover from the numerous battles and losses due to the Second War.

The teenagers, unaware of the misfortune of Florean Fortescue, ate their ice cream slowly, savoring every bite. One was a boy who looked to be in his early teens and was wearing wizard robes. Even from afar, his dark hair was extremely noticeable. His companion, a girl who looked to be about his age, was eating her own ice cream cone, consisting of Neapolitan flavors.

The sight of two teenagers eating ice cream in the middle of the week was not unusual since it was still late August and Hogwarts was not yet in session. What might cause witches or wizards passing by to do a double take was what the girl was wearing. Unlike her companion she was not dressed in wizard garb, but was wearing Muggle clothing consisting of jeans, sneakers, and a sweatshirt, with her blond hair pulled back into a ponytail.

"Rogue house-elves?" the boy asked with a hint of amusement in his voice. He then took a bite of his strawberry ice cream.

The girl didn't even bother to look up; instead she finished her cone with a satisfying crunch. "Perhaps they finally wanted payment for all their hard work over the years."

He smirked. "Or perhaps it was a certain somebody wanting to make her mark on the wizarding world by doing the impossible."

"Technically, breaking into Gringotts isn't impossible, just highly dangerous. Harry Potter and his friends broke in and then out successfully, and six years before they did it there was that one attempt on an empty vault," she explained.

"And technically, the goblins increased their security and Gringotts hasn't successfully been broken into since," he said with a smirk.

"Did we really have to meet here?" asked a petite girl who pulled up a chair to join the other two. Her hair was a far lighter blond than the other girl's, almost white. Between it's limpness and her size, she portrayed a rather weak and fragile appearance overall. It was a perception that she encouraged, since it meant that people often underestimated her, which allowed her to take advantage of them. Very few people outside of her close friends knew about that aspect of her personality.

"Why not meet here?" replied the other girl with an innocent smile on her face.

The newcomer looked at her in disbelief. "Because of them," she hissed under her breath. 'Them' referred to the numerous aurors, guards, goblins, and wizards currently surrounding Gringotts. It was still closed off from that morning, and had yet to announce when they planned to open.

"'Them' are currently busy with conducting a proper investigation and searching for the villains responsible."

The boy raised an eyebrow at that statement. "Villains? Isn't that a little harsh?"

"There's nothing wrong with being a villain, without them you wouldn't have any heroes," the blond commented matter-of-factly.

After she had sat down, the fragile looking girl had proceeded to nervously tear apart a paper napkin that had been on the table. In a quiet voice she said, "Don't the heroes always win?"

"Whoever said they were the heroes?" retorted the boy rather angrily.

"The Prophet, for one," said the girl and dumped the latest edition on the table. Letting out a snort, the boy picked it up and started to scan the stories.

"I wouldn't put too much stock in the Prophet," replied the blond. "They denied Voldemort's return for a full year, while going after Harry Potter."

"Not to mention employing Rita Skeeter," added the boy. "Hmmm... it seems as though they've left out some details..."

She sighed, while the other girl merely shrugged. "Probably so they can use those details against whoever's responsible. Besides, we can always check the ta-"

The blond was cut off by him throwing the paper down on the table in a huff. He then angrily crossed his arms. "One of the details was what we _wrote_."

"But Nick, how could they do that?" whispered Ash. Her proper name was Astrid, but her friends preferred using her shorter nickname. As for Nick, it was the only name either girl had known the boy by.

The blond picked up the paper and started to read it. "Because they don't want to frighten people by implying another war is coming. No matter, it just means that we'll have to do something so big that even the Ministry can't cover it up."

"What could be bigger, Emmy?" asked Ash.

Emmy, the blond, smiled wickedly. "Oh, I have a couple ideas."

* * *

Harry Potter, former Boy-Who-Lived and current Head of the Aurors Office, surveyed the charred letters that were left on the floor of Gringott's Great Hall. The flames had been extinguished for quite some time, but the sooty remains stood out in such contrast against the white marble floor, it was still possible to read the message:

_The time has come for the world to receive Promethesus's Gift. Those who stand in the way, shall be blinded by its light._

_Signed, The Order of Prometheus._

The scene had been discovered by Lockhook, Head Goblin of Gringotts, who had walked in at six o'clock that morning to prepare Gringotts to open for the day. Upon entering the Main Hall, an explosion of sorts had taken place. While he was relatively uninjured, his eyebrows and hair had been singed off. More worried about the treasures below, he had hurried off, not even bothering to read the message.

At first it seemed that the vaults were untouched, but a gradual vault-by-vault search had revealed otherwise. Originally the goblins hadn't alerted the Ministry to the attack, preferring to take care of it themselves. But when eight o'clock, the normal opening time for Gringotts, came and went with the doors still closed, the Ministry was alerted that something was amiss at Gringotts. Goblins, especially the ones at Gringotts, were notorious for being prompt. Therefore when Gringotts failed to open on time the wizards outside knew something must have been wrong.

After refusing to open the doors initially, the Aurors were called in. It took Harry some time, but he eventually managed to convince Lockhook to open the doors and let the Aurors in. The goblins had mixed feelings regarding Harry. While he did manage to defeat Voldemort, who had no love for goblins, he had also broken in (and out) of Gringotts, leaving it a mess in the process. And while he hadn't been banned from the premises (the goblins had tried, but the Ministry had stepped in), he had noticed that more goblins accompanied him to his vault than was normal for other wizards.

"What's the Order of Prometheus?" asked Leanne Boot, a fellow Auror.

Harry was wondering the exact same thing himself. He dimly recognized the name Prometheus, but wasn't sure what it was from. It was times like these that made him wish Hermione was with him, instead of being back at the Ministry with the Department of Magical Law Enforcement; she would know what the message meant. For now all he could do was to make a note to ask her the next time he saw her.

Realizing that Leanne was still waiting for an answer, he replied, "I'm not sure..." He then bent to the ground and wiped the remains with his right index finger. Sniffing it, he frowned. The fire hadn't been set by a simple Incendio spell, but by something else entirely.

Standing back up, he held his finger out to Leanne. "Do you know what this is?"

She sniffed, and her eyebrows crinkled. "Gasoline? But Muggles use that. What's it doing in Gringotts?"

Before he could reply Seamus Finnigan, an Auror like Leanne, came up to him. "Just got back from the vaults. Sorry Harry, but they cleaned out you, Flitwick, _and_ Shacklebolt. That's not to mention what they did to everybody else. It's a complete mad-house down there with all the goblins running about trying to figure out what happened."

"Excuse me, Mr. Pot-Potter? The Prophet has reporters outside wanting to know what's going on. Wha-What should I tell them?" said some meek wizard who worked for the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Harry wasn't sure what his name was due to the fact the wizard usually froze up whenever Harry spoke to him.

The Prophet hadn't changed much since Harry's youth, it still had the habit of sensationalizing and over-reacting to news. While Rita Skeeter had gone on to create her own magazine, Romilda Vane had taken her place as the gossip queen. No doubt she and other reporters were ready with quills in hand to start speculating over the Gringotts incident. Harry was grateful that Ginny hadn't picked up those horrible habits since she had started working for the Prophet. Then again, she was the senior Quidditch correspondent, so she hung out with a different crowd than Romilda. Which, was actually quite good considering their history together.

Normally Harry wasn't fond of hiding important information from the wizarding world, but in this case he felt it was necessary until he figured out what the Order of Prometheus was and how much of a threat they were. The Second War had long been over, but Voldemort's reign of terror had certainly left an impact. There had been a mass riot in Diagon Alley years ago when the rumor that Voldemort wasn't actually dead had been spread by former Death Eaters. It was completely false, but the clean-up afterwards had been costly both financially and mentally. To release information indicating that another dark wizard was rising was foolish at this point, especially with the lack of information about the Order of Prometheus.

"Leave the reporters to me," said Harry finally, after reaching a conclusion regarding what he was going to say.

As he moved to exit the building and to deal with Vane and the others, Seamus grabbed his arm. "You feel it too, don't you? That it's about to start all over again."

Silently, Harry agreed with Seamus, but had been unable to admit it to himself. Now that he was finally confronting the realization, his eyes started to get a familiar, determined, look in them. "Not if I can help it."

****Author's Note****

Let me start by welcoming you to my latest fic, Prometheus's Gift. So far I have the first five chapters written with the rest planned out, allowing me to update every Thursday. The next chapter will explain how they broke into Gringotts (it's easier than you might think), what exactly the Order of Prometheus is, and give you a bit more background on Emmy, Ash, and Nick. Their background will gradually be revealed throughout the series, and for the most part I don't think they're that Mary-Sueish.

While I'm not new to fanfiction, I am new to writing HP fics. Well they're are good stories out there, there are also plenty of Mary-Sues, overused plots, and cliches. The combination of those things have me hesitant of writing an HP fic since I was afraid I would make those same mistakes.

About a week ago I was reading an article on Cracked called "6 Horrifying Implications of the Harry Potter Universe" and number five on the list was about wizards and technology. It brings up the idea that wizards probably have no defenses against nuclear weapons, radiation, or other modern Muggle devices since they don't even bother to understand them. If Arthur can't even figure out the purpose of a rubber duck, how is he expected to know to run from a gun? He'd probably run toward it wanting to know what it was.

And so the idea for this fic was born, using Muggle technology to bring down the wizarding world. It seems original for this section, but I just started exploring it again, so I might be wrong. My apologies if this has been done before.

I'm sticking with book canon, and what's known about the future. I plan on including a piece at the end of each chapter separating what's canon, and what I made up. If you like it, let me know and I'll keep doing so, and if you dislike it, I'll stop. So here it is:

Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor: Florean Fortescue being carried off by Death Eaters and killed. I just assume (and hope) a relative reopened it.

'Return to Normalcy' campaign: Never mentioned in the books, but it seems like something the Ministry would do. Basically it was a campaign that encouraged growth and rebuilding the wizarding world but giving out grants and loans to wizards who needed them.

Previous break-in's: Professor Quirrell tried to get the Philosopher's Stone during Harry's first year, but failed since Hagrid got to it first earlier in the day. The second was by Harry, Hermione, and Ron in the Deathly Hallows when they got the Hufflepuff's cup from Bellatrix's vault, and ended up escaping by flying on a dragon.

Lockhook: Since Voldemort killed all the known goblins after Harry escaped with the cup, I needed to create my own. I figure Lockhook sounds like a goblin name, and there were have to be a Head Goblin. Goblins strike me as prompt creatures, at least when it comes to dealing with money, and eight o'clock seemed like an appropriate time for them to open Gringotts.

Harry: It is canon that Harry eventually became Head of the Aurors. Originally I didn't plan on him having a big role in the story, but after learning that, it was inevitable that he would be involved, and his role expanded. I'm not sure if the goblins tried banning him from Gringotts, but I would imagine they wouldn't be too happy with him after breaking in and trashing the place in the process.

Hermione: It is canon that she went back to Hogwarts for a year before working for the Ministry. Eventually she was promoted to the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Since she's not an Auror she probably doesn't work directly with Harry, but I would imagine that they consult on cases.

Leanne Boot: In the books she was a Hufflepuff that was friends with Katie Bell, and joined Dumbledore's Army in the last book. According to the wiki, she doesn't have a last name, so I married her to Terry Boot, a Ravenclaw and fellow DA member, to give her one. Since it is canon that those who fought in the Battle of Hogwarts were allowed to become Aurors despite education, I thought it would be a good career for her. Plus I had one less OC to come up with.

Seamus: The character was played by Ron originally, until I learned that he joined George at the joke shop after working as an Auror for a number of years. Canonically, Seamus was never mentioned among the dead, so I made him an Auror for the same reasons I made Leanne one.

Shacklebolt: Kingsley Shacklebolt was named Minister of Magic in the books. Twenty years is a long time to be the Minister, but it was never mentioned when he resigned/died, and I wanted a recognizable character in the role, that was also a decent and competent wizard.

Flitwick: Originally they were to break into McGonagall's vaults since she did become Headmistress of Hogwarts. However, she did eventually resign. Well it's not known when she did so, I wanted to reflect it in this fic, similar to what I did for Ron. Professor Flitwick seemed like the natural person to replace her, though it's not been confirmed as canon.

Ginny: Everything regarding Ginny is canon. She married Harry and played Quidditch for the Holyhead Harpies. When she started a family with Harry, she became the senior Quidditch correspondent at the Daily Prophet.

Romilda Vane/Rita Skeeter: Everything regarding these two is my own invention (besides Rita working for the Prophet). Romila seemed like the next Skeeter gossip-wise (her asking Ginny if Harry had a dragon tattooed across his chest and being all giggly). I'm going with Skeeter mentored her before going on to write more books and create her own magazine. It's seems like something she would do, and hopefully the Prophet raised its standards. Really, it's amazing they haven't been sued for libel considering some of the stuff she's written.

The riot a couple years ago: This is my own. I figured after everything the wizarding world has gone through, there would still be those so traumatized by what happened, that the mere suggestion Voldemort was back would create a mass panic.

That's it for now. Let me know if you loved it, or hated it, in a review, or if I got some facts wrong. Reviews are always nice to get, and I'm curious as to what people think of this fic.


	2. Beneath the Floors

I do not own the rights to Harry Potter. If I did, Dudley's children would be wizards.

**Beneath the Floors**

Wizards were morons. To be more correct, they were lazy morons. Goblins were just as bad.

That lesson was one of the first things Emmy had learned in her life. One of the second things she had learned was how to exploit it.

After Harry Potter's break-in (and out) of Gringotts, the bank had numerous repairs to make. There was the Gringotts's roof, a dragon that had to be replaced, and increasing the security access to the vaults to prevent future thefts. While their efforts were quite valiant, they were also quite futile since two basic assumptions were made about any potential thieves.

The first assumption was that the thieves would enter through the front door of the vault. The second was that the thieves would use magic to break in. By going against those two presumptions, breaking into Gringotts was easier than breaking into a Muggle bank.

Hence the belief that wizards (and goblins) were lazy morons.

Anti-theft measures were focused solely on the doors guarding the vault. The proper key was needed to open it, handled by an official Gringotts goblin (who was not under a spell) and that was just for the vaults close to the surface. The deeper the vaults were, the more security was used. There were now tracks that led to nowhere and dead ends (literally) to confuse would-be thieves; concealing charms on select vaults so only a trusted few had the ability to see and enter them. If somebody with impure intentions entered a vault, the door would promptly close behind them and lock them in. Magic would then cease working properly for the unlucky thief, so any attempt out would fail. Their only way out alive was if the owner or a goblin opened the vault within a small time frame. And that was assuming the thief wasn't killed on the spot before being sent off to Azkaban. After all, who was to know that the thief was discovered before they expired?

But all of that applied to trying to enter from the front door of a vault, not the sides, ceiling, nor floor. While the thickness and walls of the vaults were several feet of solid rock, time and drills could solve that problem. Of course, drills were a Muggle technology, and the idea of Muggles breaking into Gringotts was preposterous. It was even more outrageous than the idea of wizards using said Muggle technology to break in. Which is why the goblins never prepared any counter measure or spells for such an attempt.

* * *

It took months to dig through all the vaults and create tunnels connecting the vaults. Digging was done at night once Gringotts was closed, and all goblins along with their sensitive ears were gone as well. The last thing they needed was for the goblin's ears to pick up on the drilling. There were other dangers too, such as cave-ins, close calls with dragons, and almost being detected several occasions by curious goblins, but the tunnels were eventually completed. Emmy did contemplate simply blasting the doors open with dynamite, but that would mean the plan would have to be completed in one night, not allowing for any complications.

Ash, or Astrid Nott as she was properly called, may have been a Squib, but she was a Squib that had access to her family vaults. More specifically the vaults belonging to the Greengrass (thanks to her mother) and Nott (thanks to her father) families. And if she begged (or blackmailed), she could even manage to get access to the Malfoy vaults through her cousin, Scorpius.

Emmy and Nick didn't need an invisibility cloak or concealing spells to sneak into the vault with Ash, and neither did all of their supplies. Instead, they hid in plain sight. Sort of. They hid in large trunks that belonged to Ash's family and had Undetectable Extension Charms on them. Ash claimed the trunks needed to be put into the vaults, while she counted the gold and other treasures. She assured the goblin that opened the vault, that she had proven useful to her family as a record keeper of sorts, despite being a Squib, and would be fine on her own for a couple hours. The policy was not to leave wizards alone for long periods of time, but she was a Squib. Even goblins were more powerful than Squibs, so she certainly was no threat. The goblin, Gragnok, left her alone in the vault certain the only trouble she could get into was dying. He couldn't have been more wrong.

Once Gragnok left, Emmy and Nick emerged from their trunks and got to work. Their drill of choice was one of the world's premiere drills and was made by a company called Grunnings. The distance between the edge of the door of Ash's vault, and the edge of the door of the vault next door was ten meters. The edge of the door to the left wall inside Ash's vault was four meters. Assuming the vault next door had the same measurements, they had roughly two meters of rock to dig through.

Getting started was a laborious process, but eventually they were close to breaking through. They left a few centimeters of thickness so they could turn the entry point into a hidden door that could swing open whenever they wanted. A handle and latch were then attached to the outside of the door to make it easier to open, and to prevent anybody inside the vault accidentally discovering it and the tunnel.

Debris from the drill was simply dropped outside, off of the tracks that led to the vault and into the vast darkness below. Falling debris wasn't exactly uncommon underground, so the goblins would surely dismiss it as a natural process. And since their digging was done at night anyway, the chance of falling debris causing alarm decreased significantly.

To ensure that they weren't any unwelcomed guests, hidden cameras were installed in the vault. Cameras that were similar to those covering other areas of Gringotts, Diagon Alley, the Ministry, and England as a whole. All courtesy of Emmy. The cameras sent live footage to their headquarters, her mobile, and laptop. Cameras that wizards knew nothing about, and were programmed to run off of magic. It had taken Emmy several years to achieve that accomplishment, but in her mind it was well worth it.

Emmy called her system the Eyes of Argus, named for the famous Greek giant with hundreds of eyes. They let her see what was going on, and no amount of detection spells could find them (not that any wizards had bothered). Detection spells were designed to catch eavesdroppers, or listening spells; not Muggle technology. The best part was, that even if a wizard or witch stumbled upon her cameras, they most likely wouldn't know what they were, simply dismissing them as some funny Muggle device.

Besides cameras, other protective measures were taken upon entering the vault as well. To detect for the Flagrante Curse, ham, turkey, and other lunch meats were laid on objects in the vault. If they didn't start cooking, the objects were safe to touch. If the meat did start cooking, Emmy proceeded carefully. Thick, heavy duty gloves that were heat resistant up to 1300 degrees Celsius, were to be worn. While the spell might burn through the material, it would certainly take much longer than wearing regular gloves. If need be, a small robot could be used to move materials since the spell would not recognize it as a threat due to it's metallic nature.

Another spell that was popular when it came to protecting valuables was the Geminio Curse, which causes an object to multiple when touched. The simplest solution was not to touch the object, at least, not directly. By using the same robot as above, the curse could be avoided for the same reasons.

But simply breaking into the vault next door wasn't enough for Emmy, she wanted more. Over several months, she and her friends managed to carve a system of tunnels and shafts between the vaults below Gringotts. Wood posts and columns were installed at strategic places to prevent collapses; ladders were installed to make climbing up shafts easier. Several tunnels leading to the outside had also installed at the beginning to ensure proper ventilation. They also served as new entrances and exits so Ash wasn't constantly asking to visit her vault, which could get suspicious after a while.

The same process that was used for the first vault was used over and over again, and proved to be very successful. There was such trust in Gringotts that few wizards even put their own additional spells to secure their vaults. The ones that did typically came from pureblood families that had a history of supporting Voldemort and didn't trust beings that they considered beneath them, competent enough to guard their valuables.

* * *

Emmy had several goals in mind when she decided to rob Gringotts. The most obvious being money. If she wanted to bring the Ministry down, she would need the proper funds to do so and increase her network. There was another goal, though: to show that_ nobody_ was safe from her. Not Kingsley Shacklebolt, the Minister of Magic; not Filius Flitwick, the headmaster of Hogwarts; and certainly not Harry Potter, the Chosen One.

After several trial runs, the night had approached. If Emmy really wanted to, all the vaults could have been emptied in one night. Such an act though would probably cause the economy of the British wizarding world to collapse in an instant, no doubt leading to the collapse of other wizarding communities around the world, and eventually the Muggle counterparts.

But Emmy wasn't ready to do that. At least, not yet. She wanted to play with them, let them think they were capable of defeating her. Then, just when they would give it their all, she'd crush them like bugs; she'd make them grovel at her feet. Once at their lowest, she would raise them up, and welcome them with open arms into the 21st century.

So instead, the Order of Prometheus robbed three vaults that belonged to prominent wizards. The rest, they played 'hide and seek' with. Objects were taken from one vault, then placed in several others. While the main three vaults would attract the most attention initially, the other thefts would take a much longer time to figure out. It would be a tedious process to go through every single Gringotts vault to take inventory of what was there, what wasn't there, and what should be there. Further complicated matters would be greedy witches and wizards claiming false belongings and coins as their own.

The piece de resistance, was the message left on the pristine marble floors in the Main Hall. The message, in large flaming letters read:

_The time has come for the world to receive Promethesus's Gift. Those who stand in the way, shall be blinded by its light._

_Signed, The Order of Prometheus._

Well the message was cryptic and wouldn't have any meaning at the moment, it would, eventually. It was just the first of many attacks to show that The Order of Prometheus should be taken seriously.

* * *

The name, Order of Prometheus, had been hotly debated between Emmy, Nick, and Ash. Emmy had originally wanted to call their organization the Eyes of Argus, after her system of cameras. Ash disagreed, pointing out that most people would connect 'Argus' with 'Argus Filch' from Gringotts, not the Argus from Greek mythology.

Nick then added the name also wasn't very clear about their message. Yes, their point was that they could see everything and everybody, but that wasn't their main goal. The main point was that they were going to enlighten the world. They planned to bring knowledge of the Muggle world into the wizarding world; forcing wizards to upgrade from their ancient ways. Then the Order of Prometheus would bring knowledge of the wizarding world to the Muggles, finally combining the two worlds into one.

To get their message across better, Nick suggested using the Greek myth of Prometheus. In the myth, Prometheus, a titan, stole fire from the gods and gave it to humans. Fire was just a metaphor for what he really gave the humans though. He also brought them knowledge, writing, tools. Before Prometheus, humans were living in caves like animals. After Prometheus's gift, humans started civilizations, built empires, and lived fulfilling lives.

The downside to his gift was his punishment. Ash pointed out that the gods were furious with what Prometheus had done, and Zeus, the king of the gods, ordered him to be chained to a rock while eagles ate his liver every day. Most people would be put off by this revelation, but not Emmy. To Emmy, his suffering just made Prometheus that much better as a figure to get behind. Prometheus suffered just like she, Ash, and Nick had over the years. He was a symbol for the Squibs who were looked down upon; the Muggles like Nick who were forced with living with Muggle-borns, always watching magic from afar, but being still out of reach; and witches like Emmy, who never quite fit into the world she was born to.

Emmy countered that Prometheus was eventually freed by Hercules, the very son of the man who sentenced him. If the son of his enemy could free and believe in him, then was Prometheus truly a criminal? Furthermore, she argued, that the very gods who chastened him for his actions, went on to enjoy the benefits of humans. They had ceased being ugly little creatures, and had started being intelligent beings who worshiped the gods. Without Prometheus, temples would have never been built to them, sacrifices in their names would have never been made. Prometheus did a noble deed when deciding to give humans fire, and Emmy wanted to be just as noble.

The Order part of the name had come from Ash. Since her family had been supporters of Voldemort, she had heard about the Order of the Phoenix and their part in the war against him. By including the 'Order' in the name, it was a tongue-in-cheek insult at the member of the Order of the Phoenix, a slap in the face at their expense. Such an act appealed greatly to Emmy, and the Order of the Phoenix would probably never realize the joke. But that just made it funnier to Emmy.

There was a downside to setting the words alight; there was a limited amount of time for which the letters comes remain lit. The short time limit caused Emmy to arrange for the flames to be triggered remotely. By viewing her cameras inside the bank, she could watch for the first goblin to arrive. Then she just needed to press a button which would send a wireless signal that could ignite the letters producing a flaming message.

The Order of Prometheus had arrived, and nobody, not even the Ministry of Magic, or the Order of the Phoenix, could stand in their way.

****Author's Note****

I would first like to thank noonface for being my lone reviewer. I appreciate the favs and alerts, but reviews would be nice too. I would also like to thank everybody at Harry Potter Wiki since they made this chapter possible.

When I first had the idea of breaking into Gringotts, I didn't know if it was actually possible. But then I started reading up on the known spells and defenses against thieves, and they all seemed to be directed on the door of the vault, or objects inside the vault. Yes, there may be dragons, sphinxes, and Thief's Downfall, but tunneling into Gringotts would avoid all that. In addition, the Gemino and Flagrante curses could also be worked around. So, going with all the known preventative measures, it is possible to break into Gringotts the Muggle way.

Gragnok is my own goblin. Grunnings is the company that Vernon works for, and I think he'd be amused that his drills were being used against the wizarding world.

Ash is the daughter of Theodore Nott and Daphne Greengrass, and cousin to Scorpius Malfoy. Both were probably supporters of Voldemort considering their families, but were never given epilogues, so I made my own for them. As for Nick, Emmy, and Ash, more background will gradually be revealed about them throughout the story.

Also, the Eyes of Argus vs. Order of Prometheus was my own debate about what to name their group. More information about the Eyes of Argus and Order of Prometheus will also be further revealed as the story progresses.

Thanks for reading the update, and if possible please leave a review! I will respond to signed reviews.


	3. On The Right Track

I do not own the rights to Harry Potter. If I did, LunaxNeville would be canon.

**On the Right Track**

Since the Ministry of Magic was keeping mum regarding the extent of the Gringotts incident, Emmy was determined to pull of a feat of such magnitude that there was nothing the Ministry could do to sweep it under the rug. She had one particular idea in mind, but only had a week to pull it off versus the months of planning that went into Gringotts. But if it worked, the whole world would know about the Order of Prometheus and that they meant business.

Emmy planned to not just hi-jack the Hogwarts Express, but every train that was traveling on the first of September. Such an act would affect not only the Wizarding World, but the Muggle world as well.

When she told her idea to Nick and Ash, they had both scoffed at it. Breaking into a bank was one thing, but to hi-jack not only one moving train, but multiple ones? Impossible; they just didn't have the man-power to accomplish such an act.

"Don't be daft," scolded Emmy, who was hurt by their lack of faith. "We're not going to physically hi-jack the trains. Trains run on tracks, tracks are controlled remotely by computers which ensure that the trains are moving along their scheduled route."

Nick, having grown up in the Muggle world, got what she was getting at. "We're going to hack to the system and switch the tracks signals."

Emmy nodded in relief; she wasn't completely surrounded by morons it seemed. "Exactly. When a train approaches multiple tracks, a signal is sent to the proper track to switch over and line up with the train. By interfering with the signal, we could potentially send the train wherever we want. The Hogwarts Express follows a route from King's Cross to Hogsmeade Station, crossing other tracks several times."

Even with his new found faith in her, Nick still had doubts. "That sounds great and all, but happens if they apply the brake?"

"Assuming that the train is traveling at a top speed and depending on track conditions it would take at least 1.5 kilometers for the train to come to a complete stop, plenty of time for us to continue to mess with it. Fortunately, the other trains are all electrical so we can override their break command and continue to send them where we want," answered Emmy.

"But why bother with the Muggles?" asked Ash.

Messing with the Muggles hadn't been part of Emmy's plan initially. It was during the initial planning stages that she had discovered a couple unforeseen consequences, some of which needed to be avoided.

Emmy took a deep breath before launching into her explanation.

"The Hogwarts Express takes the same route on the same day every year. By messing with it, the Express could potentially run into other trains since it won't be on it's scheduled route. However, we can avoid this catastrophe by hi-jacking the other trains as well. Plus, just imagine the look on the Muggles' faces as they pull up to Hogsmeade and see a half-giant waiting for them along with carriages that appear to move by themselves. And by involving the Muggles, it's sure to become a national incident, and they'll put pressure on their own Prime Minister for an explanation, who'll put pressure on ours. Not only will he have a bunch of angry parents of Hogwart's students to deal with, but the Muggle Prim Minister as well."

Nick showed his appreciation for the plan by a grin spreading slowly across his face. "That's bloody brilliant; it'll take ages for them to modify all the memories and send the Muggles to their proper destinations."

Ash's eyes showed her admiration of the plan, and Emmy just smiled. There was still one other effect she had in mind if the plan would go as she hoped.

* * *

Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of the Keys and Ground at Hogwarts, and Professor of Care of Magical Creatures, had the responsibility of greeting students as they exited the Hogwarts Express. With the exception of first-years, students rode in carriages pulled by threstals up to Hogwarts. Meanwhile, he assisted all first-year students as they crossed the Lake in boats, and entered Hogwarts separately from their older classmates so they could get sorted. It was a job that he had performed for decades, and seldomly did things ever go wrong. There was the occasional student who missed the train, or first-year that would fall into the Lake, but nothing major had gone wrong. Until now.

The train that pulled up at the Hogsmeade station clearly wasn't the Hogwarts Express. The lettering declaring it so was missing from the side, but that wasn't what Hagrid noticed first. What he noticed first was how bright, silver, and sleek-looking it was. A far cry from the black engine that had greeted him for so many years. While he was realizing that something was very wrong, piles of what looked to be Muggles started exiting from the train. Discovering they weren't at their proper destination, they then demanded to know where they were, who he was, what was causing those weird looking carriages to move, and what he planned to do about their situation.

Among all the clamor, Hagrid managed to come up with a plan of action. Being around loud curious Muggles, wasn't that much different from being around loud curious first-year students. His plan was to head to Hogsmeade so they could contact Hogwarts and the Ministry, while he could round up and contain the Muggles. On his way he wondered, if this other train was at Hogsmeade, then where was the Hogwarts Express?

* * *

Sixth-year Gryffindor students Milly Macmillian and Nate Hawthorne were on their way to the prefects' carriage. With them were fifth-year and newly named prefects, Frank Longbottom and Molly Weasley. Out of the four, it was Molly who noticed something was off.

"Something isn't right," she commented as they went to enter the prefects' carriage.

"What's not right?" asked Milly, who was standing next to her.

"Look," Molly said, pointing outside. "That's not right. I've ridden this train enough times to have the route memorized, and we've never passed that farmhouse before."

"Maybe you just never noticed it before," volunteered Frank, who didn't understand what the big deal was with a farmhouse.

Molly shook her ginger head. She was her father's daughter (Percy Weasley to be exact) and had memorized the route the Hogwarts Express would take before she had even rode it the first time. She knew everything there was to know about the Hogwarts Express, Hogsmeade, and Hogwarts itself, which is why she was so sure that something was wrong. But seeing the doubting looks on her friends' faces, caused her to start doubting herself.

"Maybe," she replied, doubtfully.

"You're just letting those flyers get to you," said Milly, and put a comforting hand on Molly's shoulder. "You know James and Fred, they probably thought it'd be a fun way to start the year."

"I don't see how impersonating a terrorist group is fun," scoffed Nate. Since he was a Muggle-born he had just learned about the break-in that morning while catching up on gossip. Used to learning about Muggle terrorist groups on the news, he suspected that the Order of Prometheus wasn't something to be taken lightly.

"I'm sure Milly's right and it's nothing," said Frank, who didn't want to be late for his first prefect's meeting. "Now come on. What kind of prefects are we if we're late to our own meeting?"

Molly nodded, knowing that Frank was right. But she knew in her heart that she was right as well.

It would be another hour before Molly and Nate were to be proven right regarding the Order of Prometheus and the seriousness of the situation. At that time, the conductor, Samuel "Sam" Shunpike, would finally realize that the Hogwarts Express was indeed off its route, and he truly wasn't imagining it. Upon this discovery, he would promptly apply the brakes, to stop the train from heading to places unknown. He would then ask the nearest student to borrow their owl to send a message to Hogwarts, tell the prefects to keep the students calm, and help himself to the trolley (and flyers) while waiting for the higher-ups to arrive and take care of things.

* * *

Emmy, Nick, and Ash watched the events transpire on a series of large LCD screens covering the wall before them. During the week before, all three had performed prep work to ensure the attack would go smoothly. That meant creating a time table documenting each train and the route it was suppose to take versus the route it was going to take in order to avoid collisions. The three also had done some reconnaissances at Hogsmeade. Emmy planted several of her cameras so she could capture the moment when the train that wasn't the Hogwarts Express arrived, and what would follow afterwards. She also took the liberty of inspecting the Hogwarts Express while it was being prepared several days before it was to leave King's Cross, planting several cameras in the cars as well to capture student reactions.

Between hacking the transportation network that controlled the electronic signals for the trains, and ensuring said trains didn't have any unfortunate accidents, the trio were celebrating their success by watching the events unfold before them. Popcorn, pizza, and soda were all being happily consumed, as if it was a party of some sort (and in a way it was).

"I believe we owe you an apology Emmy for doubting you," Nick somehow managed to say between huge bites of pizza.

Scooping up a handful of popcorn, Emmy smiled, basking in the praise. The best part hadn't even happened yet. According to her watch, the best part was about to go off.

The hill leading up to the castle was perfectly situated between Hogwarts and the Hogsmeade station so it could be seen from both sides. A couple minutes after Emmy checked her watch, an explosion on the hill went off, similar to that of the Gringott's one. This time the message read:

_Not even the Ministry can deny Prometheus's Gift. Contact your Prime Minister for details on how to receive your free gift today!_

_Signed, the Order of Prometheus_

That was just the Hogsmeade station. At stations across the country, the message was being displayed on departing and arriving screens, confusing bystanders. Since they had no way of knowing where and when the Hogwarts Express would stop, Emmy had a special surprise arranged. The candy for the trolley was ordered in advance, and stored on the Hogwarts Express. While installing the cameras, Emmy had discovered where it was stored.

It took a night's work, but between the three, they managed to insert flyers into boxes of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, Chocolate Frogs, Licorice Wands, Pumpkin Pastries, and other sweets. Since nearly every student on the train would order some kind of sweet, the Order was guaranteed that nearly every student on the train would receive a flyer or know a friend who had.

The flyers were printed in several colors: red paper with gold lettering, blue paper with bronze lettering, green paper with silver lettering, and yellow paper with black lettering; the colors of the houses of Hogwarts. The message read the same as the Hogsmeade message:

_Not even the Ministry can deny Prometheus's Gift. Contact your Prime Minister for details on how to receive your free gift today!_

_Signed, the Order of Prometheus_

It was surprisingly low-tech, the words weren't even enchanted to move. Instead, the letters were big, bold, and simple. Simple, but effective. Similar to the attack on Gringotts, it showed that nothing was safe from the Order, not even the candy on the trolley.

Emmy couldn't wait to see tomorrow's edition of the Prophet. Or the London Times. Actually, she couldn't wait to see the next edition of every newspaper in the country and what they had to say about the Order of Prometheus.

But the headlines on the online news sites were a good start.

****Author's Note****

I would first like to thank Son of Whitebeard for reviewing last chapter. Reviews are addicting, so it'd be nice to hear some more feedback from people regarding this story.

I tried doing research to see if hijacking the trains was actually possible. I couldn't really find a lot regarding how the U.K's train system works, so I'm assuming it will be possible in 2018, when the story is set. Each year our society becomes more and more engaged with technology and science, so it's easy to assume at some point, all travel will be controlled remotely by electronics.

Molly Weasley, James (Potter), Fred (Weasley) and Hagrid are the only canon characters. Milly Macmillian, Frank Longbottom, and Nate Hawthorne are mine, and besides Nate, it should be easy to figure out who Milly and Frank are related to. Also, Sam Shunpike is my OC as well. Since it was never specified who was the conductor of the Hogwarts Express, I thought it'd be funny to make it a relative of Stan Shunpike, the driver of the Knight Bus.

Next chapter will feature the aftermath of the incident, along with what Emmy is planning next.

Thanks for reading this chapter, and if possible please leave a review letting me know what you think of the chapter and story.


	4. A Good Night's Sleep

I do not own the rights to Harry Potter. If I did, Teddy wouldn't be an orphan.

**A Good Night's Sleep**

Harry Potter didn't arrive home until three in the morning. It had taken every staff member in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement to clean-up the mess the Order of Prometheus had made. The memories of the Muggles who mistakenly arrived at Hogsmeade had to be modified for starters. Then they had to be put back on the train and sent to where they were suppose to be. And it just had to happen on a Saturday, when most people were with their families instead of working. Additional time had been spent simply trying to contact all the staff, and that they were needed at the Ministry immediately. Harry made a mental note that once everything was over, a faster and more efficient of communication should be constructed for situations like this.

When it came what to do with the Hogwart's students, it was decided that using port keys would be more efficient at sending the students back to Hogwarts, than turning the train around. Nobody was willing to risk further interference with the Hogwarts Express since it still had to be determined how exactly the train fiasco had been pulled off in the first place. There was no evidence that whoever had interfered with the train was done with it, and wouldn't interfere again.

Even once all of _that_ had been taken care of, there was still more to do. It took Shacklebolt a couple hours to convince the Muggle Prime Minister that there was no free gift, the Order of Prometheus was actually a terrorist group, all Muggles at Hogsmeade had their memory's modified in a way that didn't hurt, and the Ministry of Magic was doing its best to deal with the situation. Then Shacklebolt still had to deal with the number of owls bombarding his office, sent from concerned parents.

Add the above with trying to keep everybody calm and convince them that Voldemort was not returning, avoiding reporters, Harry was amazed that he managed to apparate home without splinching himself.

On a brighter note, he had learned that all the gold in his vault had been restored thanks to the goblins. They had their own private stash which acted as a sort of insurance policy if anything was ever stolen from Gringotts. The secret stash was probably the real reason why they were so vigilant when it came to thieves; they didn't want to be forced to give any of their own personal gold away.

Ginny was waiting for him of course, despite the late hour. She was worried about how he was doing, and whether or not their sons arrived at Hogwarts safely.

He said nothing as he pulled her into his arms. His days at work may be stressful sometimes, but knowing he had a loving wife and family waiting for him back home was worth it; especially considering all the times that he thought he might never have a future or a family when he was younger.

"Hermione owled me once she got off work to let me know what happened and that you were going to be late. How are the boys?"

"James loved every second of it and seems to think the Order are nothing but great pranksters. Al was a bit more worried, but once the Ministry got them to Hogwarts he was saying that he wished the school year was just as exciting."

They both laughed at that. Having many 'exciting' school years themselves, their sons had no idea how wonderful a boring year was. Both hoped that Al's prediction wasn't about to come true, and that the Order would leave Hogwarts alone.

"Lily was jealous that her brothers got to have all the fun and took a while to go to bed. She can be just as stubborn as you sometimes, I swear."

"I'd swear that she gets it from you," Harry teased back.

Ginny swat at him playfully. Then her voice took on a more serious tone. "How much of a threat is this Order exactly?"

Harry slumped into a chair and massaged his forehead. "In one week they've managed to break into Gringotts, _and_ hi-jack the Hogwarts Express while getting the Muggles involved. Thankfully, nobody has died yet, but who's to say they won't the next time the Order does something? If it wasn't for the fact that they keep pulling off such high security stunts, I'd think they were nothing more than childish pranksters."

"Childish pranksters that are putting the wizarding world at risk. Even Fred and George would have never gone this far," replied Ginny as she sat down next to him. "Do you have any leads?"

"Tomorrow Hermione and I plan on figuring out who the proper contact in the Muggle Ministry is and seeing about an explanation for how the Order pulled off the train escapade. We're the ones with the most Muggle background in the office, so we'll probably understand what's going on the most."

"Today," said Ginny correcting him. Seeing Harry's confused look she explained, "It's three in the morning Harry. You and Hermione will talk about visiting the Muggle's Ministry _today_."

Harry's reply was a long groan. It seemed as if it was going to be a long week. Scratch that, it was going to be a long month.

* * *

Unlike Harry, Emmy didn't have a late night. She slept soundly in her comfortable, full-sized bed in her flat. The flat was located in London, close to the Leaky Cauldron for access to Diagon Alley. Emmy had inherited the place from her grandfather, and had completely modernized the place. LCD flat screen TV's everywhere, high speed internet, 'smart' appliances, just to name a few.

To protect the place, she had invested in magical and technology. It had taken her several months before she was able to properly cast the wards. In the meantime she had relied on an alarm and motion detection system she installed. Once both were in place, she was protected by intruders of the Muggle and magical variety. Muggles would be prepared for her electronic defenses, but not the magical ones; and wizards would be prepared to disarm the wards, but not her electronics. It was the best of both worlds. The only people who were allowed in her flat were Ash and Nick, each having their own private bedrooms, while all three shared a bathroom.

After waking up refreshed, Emmy went out to buy several newspapers, anxious to see the headlines. The stories on the internet were short and brief since not a lot of information had been revealed at the time. The next day, was a different story. Facts, quotes, and speculation regarding the nature of the Order of the Prometheus filled the front page.

"I never took you as the scrap-booking sort," commented Nick upon seeing Emmy with multiple newspapers laid out in front of her, and being in the process of cutting out one article. Despite it being past noon, he had just woken up and was on the way to the kitchen to get breakfast.

Ash, who had been reading a _Hogwarts A History_, rolled her eyes. "Why wouldn't she keep the articles? I know I might want to look back at our humble beginnings some day."

"Must be a girl thing," Nick snorted.

"And being crude must be a guy thing," Ash replied.

Emmy, who was use to their bickering, just sighed. Normally it was just playful and joking around, but lately it had gotten a bit uglier, and occurring more frequently. Emmy had learned that there really was no point in interrupting them when they got like this. The few attempts she had made usually ended up with Ash and Nick joining up and yelling at her. So instead, she continued cutting out articles and taping them into the album.

After a couple more insults, Nick started to eat his cereal while Ash returned to her book, and all was quiet once more. Until Ash spoke up. "What's next Emmy? Are we going after the Ministry finally?"

Pleased with the temporary truce and new subject, Emmy was more than happy to explain her new plan.

"Not yet, we don't quite have the numbers to maintain a change in power. That's why we need to focus on recruitment. If we cross check the list of students at Hogwarts with the birth records at St. Mungo's, we can track down Squibs, and relatives of Muggle-borns. If they're on the records for St. Mungo's, but not Hogwarts, they're either a Squib, dead, or moved. If they're on the Hogwarts list, but not St. Mungo's, they either are Muggle-born, or were born somewhere else. Some further investigation will then let us narrow down potential recruits."

"Clever," said Nick. "While St. Mungo's should be easy, Hogwarts is going to be trickier since they've probably doubled their security since we hi-jacked the Hogwarts Express."

Ash, wasn't so approving of the plan. "The student list for Hogwarts is recorded in a special book by an enchanted quill. Do you even know where the book and quill are Emmy? Hogwarts is a huge place, and it's not like they'll will be in the open; Hogwarts isn't _that_ stupid."

Emmy had to fight back the urge to roll her eyes at Ash. "I know that. I also know that the Deputy Headmistress is in possession of the book and magic quill since each year she gets the job of sending out letters to incoming first years on their eleventh birthdays. She can't send out the letters without the names and addresses, which are only found in the book which is recorded in by the magic quill. I also know that the current Deputy Headmistress is Aurora Sinestra, the astronomy teacher, and therefore her office should be located close to the astronomy tower."

Satsified with her explanation, Ash went back to reading her book. Nick however said, "Alright, so you might know where this book and magic quill thingy are. That doesn't explain how you plan on entering Hogwarts."

"Your concern is touching," said Emmy mockingly, putting her hand over her heart, "but leave Hogwarts to me. You two just worry about accessing the birth records for the past fifty years."

"Us too?" objected Ash. Since she was a Squib she had never set foot inside Hogwarts. Emmy was well aware by now what Ash's heart desire was, and was denying Ash the chance to fulfill it. Worse, Emmy didn't seem to care.

"Yes, you two. I don't know what's going on between you, but work it out."

Ash huffed, and Nick sighed, not happy with the decision either. Pretending not to notice, Emmy continued. "The security for the birth records should be slim since the Ministry assumes we'll be going after more dangerous stuff."

"They should know by now that anything is dangerous when you're around," joked Nick as he tried to lighten the mood.

Emmy just stuck out her tongue at him, while Ash couldn't shake the feeling that Emmy was hiding something from them.

****Author's Note****

Two reviews last chapter! I'd like to thank Son of Whitebeard and Wise girl16 for reviewing. Reviews are like cookies, they're very addicting.

Next chapter will feature Emmy at Hogwarts along with what she's hiding, along with Nick and Ash at St. Mungo's, and the reason for the tension.

A couple notes:

I don't know if the goblins have their own gold in case Gringotts is robbed, but it seems like they should have some sort of insurance policy. Plus it explains their protectiveness of the treasure stored at Gringotts.

Each child does get a letter upon their eleventh birthday, having been recorded in a book by a magical quill. Since McGongall was the one who sent Harry his letters, I'm assuming the job falls to the Deputy Headmaster/Headmistress. I wanted a familiar name for the role, hence choosing Sinestra as current Deputy Headmistress under Flitwick as Headmaster.

The books never went into detail as to where witches and wizards are born, or if they even have birth certificates. For the sake of this story I'm assuming they're are either born at St. Mungo's and receive birth certificates, or are born at home, and receive a birth certificate upon a check-up of some sort.

Also, I'm American, so please forgive me and let me know if I get anything wrong regarding British slang and life.

Thanks for reading, and if you can, leave a review!


	5. Facing Fears

I do not own the rights to Harry Potter. If I did, Sirius would have had a more satisfying death.

**Facing Fears**

Ash had been right, there was something that Emmy was keeping back.

The 'something' was actually a long story regarding Emmy's past. The short version was that Emmy had once been a student at Hogwarts, before hating it so much she ran away.

There were many reasons why Emmy hated Hogwarts enough to run away. The main one though, was the lack of technology. Emmy may have been born into a wizarding family, but she was also a 21st century girl. She used pens and paper instead of quills and parchment; and was quite the avid Doctor Who and Sherlock fan. After being at Hogwarts for a couple hours she was going through withdrawal and itching for her laptop, which didn't work due to the interference from the ancient magic of Hogwarts. Emmy didn't care about ancient magic or that Hogwarts was one the oldest and best schools in the world. What Emmy cared about was missing out on her favorite things.

So she ran away. And while running away, she suspected that someday she'd return to Hogwarts. Her interest in creating the Eyes of Argus stemmed from the initial hope of managing to create technology that even Hogwarts couldn't interfere with. The only true way of testing her success was if she returned to Hogwarts.

Emmy knew that as a Squib, Ash was dying to step foot inside Hogwarts, but her time wasn't now. Right now it was Emmy's time to test her technology, and to face her past. Besides, Emmy wanted to see if Hogwarts was truly as awful as she remembered before coming back with Ash.

If Hogwarts was smart, they would have increased their security after what happened with the Hogwarts Express; it's what Emmy would have done. However, from information she had gathered over the years, it was impossible to guard Hogwarts one hundred percent. Sirius Black had managed to break-in when it was still thought he was a mass murderer, there was the instance that led to Dumbledore's death thanks to Death Eaters, and Voldemort attacked the following year with a whole horde of Death Eaters_ after_ Dumbledore's Army had snuck in. Emmy was fairly certain if a half-starved man, a psychopath, his followers, and some teenage kids could sneak into Hogwarts, she could too.

Emmy had once been told that there was supposedly a secret path that led from the Honeydukes cellar to some statue in Hogwarts. She wasn't for sure where it exited, but if her source was right (he had never lied to her before) the path was seldom used or known about. Hogsmeade would be the busiest on the weekend, so that's when Emmy figured Honeydukes would be the busiest, allowing her to slip by unnoticed into the cellar. Why use sneaking spells, when you could just blend into the crowd and take advantage of the staff being too busy to pay attention to you?

That part was easy. All she had to do was wear a cloak with a hood so nobody could question her about being out of Hogwarts during early September, and find the right tile the pathway was underneath. It was the next part that she was the most worried about: blending in at Hogwarts. Since it was the weekend, she was hoping that there was a more relax feeling in the castle than there was normally during the week.

Luckily she had the foresight to keep her robes (instead of burning it as she initially wanted) all those years ago, allowing her to blend in. Granted she had grown in the four years since she had worn them, but if anybody asked she'd just say they were hand-me-downs from her older sister that was shorter than her. Maybe an older cousin that was part goblin might be more convincing... If need be, Emmy could use a spell to enlarge her robes a bit to make them fit, but Emmy wasn't fond of using her magic that often.

Or, using her wand at all, really. Doing so was such a lazy way out. Wizards had no idea what it was really like to cook, clean, or build things. A simple wave of the wand and everything was done for them. While it was may have been more efficient, Emmy doubted wizards could survive without their wands, they'd be as helpless as newborn babies. They'd probably die due to starvation, or lack of hygiene. Doing those same things the Muggle way taught one how to be more self-reliant and independent. Emmy knew for a fact that she could survive with her wand. She knew how to hunt, how to cook food she caught or bought from a store, how plumbing worked, even how to build a shelter without it falling down. Though, Emmy also couldn't deny the thrill it gave her, knowing that she was using Muggle techniques to outwit wizards.

As she continued down the lengthy passage, she thought over the story she had come up with, if she was confronted. Even though she was fifteen, she could pass for younger if she was extra convincing, as a lost first year or second year student. That was assuming that somebody actually cared enough to notice and question her.

There was still the slight chance somebody might recognize her, but Emmy doubted it. She didn't even last a full semester, and she was anti-social the whole time. In addition, she had been thinner, paler, and sickly-looking. Now she was taller, healthier, and more confident in her abilities. Besides a few students, she was confident nobody would know who she was, which was how was how she wanted it.

The air was gradually becoming thick and heavy-as if she was suffocating-the further along the path she went. A great weight seemed to be pressing down on her from above, threatening to flatten her. Emmy was almost ready to comply, she didn't know if she had the strength to go against the huge weight on her shoulders.

_No_, she thought to herself. _I've changed since then. I'm stronger, I have a job to do and won't run away this time. I hope._

Resolving that she wasn't going to let Hogwarts beat her down again, Emmy continued along the passageway till she finally reached a dead end made of stone. Until that point she had been using some glow sticks to light the way. Testing her technology was still on the agenda, but in the tunnels before she even reached Hogwarts wasn't the time; especially if it failed. Glow sticks though were due to a chemical and physical reaction versus using batteries and electricity, so they should have lit her way without a problem, and did (plus they were much more colorful than flashlights). Candles would have meant burning herself, and using Lumos would have meant using a spell.

She didn't open the passageway right away. Instead she looked through the cracks between the stone and wall to see if she could see or hear anything. Giving herself a couple minutes with still no sign of change, she determined it was safe enough to enter the school. The corridor outside was empty of students, and Emmy realized that she was on the third floor just outside the Defense Against the Dark Arts Tower, which wasn't that far from the Astronomy Tower.

Well, the stairs that led to the Astronomy Tower. The Astronomy just had to be the highest tower in the entire school, but hopefully Sinistra's office was on a lower level... like the third floor. Emmy could feel a tightness in her chest, and a pounding in her head. The sooner she got out of Hogwarts, the better.

Emmy wasn't that lucky though. She was on the fifth floor still looking for the office when she heard voices coming her way. She hid in an alcove out of their sight while they walked by.

"They're criminals and should be punished," said one student, a female by the sound of her voice.

Her friend, a male, answered. "But come on, they managed to break into Gringotts, pranked the train, and still haven't gotten caught. You got to admit, they may be criminals, but they're brilliant criminals. 'Sides, it's not like they've killed anyone."

A smile formed across Emmy's face; they were talking about the Order. That was the point of hi-jacking the train, to get people to talk, but she hadn't realized that they're might be positive comments from wizards of all people. Then again, in her experience, students were usually more open than new ideas than adults who were set in their ways. Emmy made a mental note to look into recruiting Hogwart's students in addition to Squibs and Muggles.

A third voice chimed in. "They haven't killed anyone, yet. But you have to wonder, how they did it. I mean-"

By that point the students were far enough away that Emmy couldn't hear them anymore, which saddened her. She would have loved to hear the rest of the conversation. Now it was back to the job. Though she could still hide her cameras in the hopes of capturing more student conversations. She still had her main mission, but she could get a head start of bugging Hogwarts. Maybe the next time she came back, she'd bring Ash with her so they could cover the huge area.

Continuing on her way, she found the office was actually on the sixth floor, right next to the stairs. A quick jiggle of the door knob dissolved Emmy's suspicions about it being locked. Either Sinestra was lazy, too trusting, or had stepped out. Peering into the room and seeing no lights on, Emmy ruled out Sinestra's return. Since Sinestra was Deputy Headmistress, Emmy doubted she was lazy, which left trusting. Emmy loved those kind of people, it made it so much easier to take advantage of them.

Shutting the door quickly and quietly behind her, Emmy took stock of the office. It the average size of an office with a desk, bookshelves, and parchment everywhere. Off to the right was a balcony with a telescope, and overhead were moving models of the planets in their current orbits. On the walls were charts and diagrams of different constellations. Basically everything Emmy expected of an astronomy teacher.

In the back of the room was a pedestal, holding a large object of some sort. Closer inspection proved that it was what Emmy was hoping for. The quill meanwhile was paused mid-air above it, waiting for a magical child to be born. Stuck to the wall above the book, was a list of names,birthdays, and page numbers. Some were crossed out, but Emmy realized that they had to belong to all the children either turning eleven in the upcoming year or that had recently turned eleven. Flipping through the pages of the book, Emmy was relieved to know that they just served as a reminder to Sinestra of who was next to receive their owl, and that it hadn't actually been ripped out of the book. If that was the case Emmy would have to go to the trouble of finding all the past pages with student names, eleven year-olds were a bit too young to be useful.

The quill didn't seem to mind Emmy's flipping, it just silently hovered above her as she turned each page. The quill had to be use to it at this point since Sinestra still had to look up the current address of the child on whatever page there were listed, Emmy supposed. Now was the moment of truth. Would her technology work at Hogwarts?

The flash of a Muggle digital camera had never looked so beautiful. As she clicked her way through the pages and years, she was secretly dancing on the inside. She had beaten Hogwarts at last.

With Hogwarts no longer an obstacle, all that stood in her way was the Ministry, which was notorious for being full of fools.

* * *

When Emmy had told Nick that he was to go with Ash to St. Mungo's, it took all he had to bite his tongue and not say anything. Previous experience had taught him that Emmy knew what she was doing, but he couldn't help but wonder if she was wrong for once. Ash wasn't her usual self, and whatever was irking her, caused her to take out her frustration on him. He knew that she her greatest desire was to enter Hogwarts, but would silently go along with Emmy's plan like Nick was. He would be the one to suffer her wrath which should have been directed at Emmy.

And suffered he did. From the moment they left the flat, to when they entered St. Mungo's. Instead of sticking to their story of being siblings doings research on their family tree, she had deviated and spun a tale about how he was so stupid he didn't know his own birthday. He then of course had to act the part by walking into objects, and act like he didn't know what was going on. Drool was involved at one point. Nick had been so convincing, Ash had to assure the clerk that Nick was just naturally stupid, and wasn't under the effects of a Confundus Charm.

Eventually they were left alone in the basement of St. Mungo's, where all the records and patient files. The files were kept in rows and rows of tall filing cabinets that looked as if they hadn't been touched in years. The Muggle's obsession with privacy and medical records had yet to cross over into the wizarding world, so Ash and Nick were left completely on their own.

It was then that he let all of his frustration that had slowly been accumulating through the week. A week ago, right before the Hogwarts Express incident, was when he noticed that Ash had suddenly started acting different around him. When she wasn't distant, she was hostile, and it was just toward him, not Emmy. The more she snapped at him, the more he snapped back, which started the cycle all over again. True, they had playful banter before, but not like this. It was such a sudden change from Ash's normal, calm, demeanor. Emmy had given up playing referee, and had placed them together on this mission, hoping that they would resolve their differences.

Which is what Nick did, as soon as the clerk left them alone.

"What is your problem?" he demanded.

Ash didn't bother to look up from the stack of birth records she was photographing to answer. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

Nick slammed the file cabinet he had opened, causing Ash to jump. "What's with the sudden change? Why aren't you talking to me?"

"I am talking to you."

"Ash, you know what I mean."

She heard the desperation in his voice, and turned to look at him. He was right, she had suddenly started acting differently around him. Ash realized that it was time for her to confront her fears, and explain why.

"You're a Muggle," she responded softly.

"I thought you said that you didn't care about being friends with a Muggle."

Ash sighed and shook her head. "That came out wrong. Have you thought about what'll happen if we fail?"

"We won't fail," replied Nick with confidence in his voice.

"But what if we do? Emmy is a witch, and comes from a good family, she'll probably get off easily. But I'm a Squib, and it's no secret that my family was associated with Voldemort. Then you're a Muggle. The two of us are the equivalent of house elves in the eyes of the wizarding world."

Nick still wasn't getting what Ash was trying to say. "So? That's what we're working toward changing."

Ash took a step closer to Nick. "Don't you get it? We're nobodies. The Order of Prometheus is the first legitimate threat since his time. They might bring back the dementors just to make an example of us."

"You mean those soul-sucking thingies?"

"Yes, those soul-sucking thingies," and Ash shivered at the thought. She had never experienced one, but had heard plenty about them. "My family might be able to bribe officials for a more lenient punishment, but what about you? Sure, you have a brother for a Muggle-born, but I doubt he has enough power to do anything."

"So let me see if I get this straight: you were worried about my fate, so you avoided me?"

"I didn't mean to...I just didn't know what to do, so I avoided you. When that didn't work, I took out my frustration on you. Sorry."

Taking Ash's hand, Nick said, "Look, we've been through worse before, and we'll make it through this."

Ash looked at him and gave a weak smile. "I know... I just wish there was a way we could have insurance if all of this goes wrong."

A smile spread across Nick's face. "Funny you mention that."

****Author's Note****

I'd like to thank Myrna Maeve for leaving three reviews, and Wise girl16. I don't know how many times I have to say it, but I love receiving feedback.

I hope the last bit makes sense. Ash's paternal grandfather was a known death eater in the books, and if he didn't die in the battle, he probably would have gotten sent to Azkaban. Her family would have then lived with that, and her parents' possible actions in the war for the rest of their lives, causing Ash to be rather concerned about her future.

The idea of Sinestra being the Deputy Headmistress, details on the book and magic quill, are all mine. The way Emmy got in is canon. Her first year would have been in 2014, so it's logical to assume Sherlock and Dr. Who will still be around then. St. Mungo's is canon as well, but it was never specified if or where they had record and patient files, but I'm assuming that they do like other hospitals. After the last battle, Azkaban got rid of dementors, but that doesn't mean they can't be brought back.

Next chapter will introduce a new character. I realized early on that the wizarding world would be doomed if they didn't have somebody with Emmy's skills with computers, and he'll show up next chapter.

That's all for now, thanks for reading, and please review if possible!


	6. Constant Vigilance

I do not own the rights to Harry Potter. If I did, Umbridge would have gotten what she deserved, instead of just being sent to Azkaban.

**Constant Vigilance **

The day after the Hogwarts Express incident, Hermione Weasley and Harry Potter planned on visiting the Muggle Ministry for answers regarding how such an incident was possible. What they had forgotten was that the next day was a Sunday, and most government officials didn't work. It was Tuesday before they finally managed to reach somebody who could help them, and Thursday before they were finally directed to somebody who knew what he was talking about. Apparently, all governments are inefficient and tedious in one way or another.

The person they were directed to, was a young man by the name of Darren Tremlett.

Young was the first thing Harry thought upon meeting him. The second thought was the possibility of him having giant blood.

His face was clean-shaven, and still had traces of baby fat. Pulled backed into a pony-tail, was a mane of thick, dark, hair. The rest of him was pure muscle. Harry was rather confident that the guy could have taken on Dudley in his prime, and would have still had enough energy to take on Crabbe and Goyle without breaking a sweat.

Hermione had a different first impression. She was stuck on how young he looked. Evidently the Muggle's Ministry hadn't wanted to deal with them, so they had played hot potato until the job fell upon an intern who had nobody else to give it to.

"Aren't you a little young?" she asked bluntly.

To her surprise, he started to laugh. "Aren't you a little hypocritical? You two were younger than I am now when you went after Voldemort."

Harry and Hermione were taken aback from that. How did he know what they had done?

Their unspoken question was quickly answered. "I'm a Squib. When I heard the names of the government officials that were coming to ask questions, I volunteered for the job since I'm probably the only one here who can explain things in a way that you can understand."

Starring at him, Harry realized something. "You're not related to Donaghan Tremlett, are you?"

The young man laughed again. "Sure am, he's my old man. Still playing with the band too. They're coming out with a new album next month."

Hermione rolled her eyes while Harry and Darren launched into a discussion about Darren's father, and the band he played for, the Weird Sisters. She did like their music, but there were more important things to discuss rather than the band's next album.

Trying to get the two back on topic, Hermione asked, "What do you mean when you say you're the only one here who can explain things to us?"

Darren and Harry abruptly broke off their heated discussion about which Weird Sister's song was the best (Harry was for 'Do the Hippogriff' while Darren favored 'This is the Night').

"Well, you are wizards. I love my family, but they're clueless when it comes to Muggle stuff," answered Darren candidly.

Harry defended himself and Hermione. "We may be wizards, but we also grew up in the Muggle world with electronics. Out of our department, we're the most experienced."

The smile Darren gave them was a smile a parent would give a child who claimed their fingerprint drawing was a masterpiece; a, 'it's-so-adorable-how-naive-you-are' smile. "Aw, that's cute."

Hermione looked at Darren curiously. "What's cute?"

"The fact that you two seem to think you know all there is to know about technology."

"But we do know a lot," insisted Hermione.

"Really?" Darren leaned forward eagerly in his chair. "What's a terabyte? How about an app? The difference between a PC and Mac? What about a desktop vs. laptop? Facebook? Twitter?"

Darren's point was proven when blank looks appeared on Harry's and Hermione's face. It was evident that they had no idea what he was talking about.

"See," replied Darren, "Those are basic questions that any Muggle five year-old can answer, but wizards can't. You may have been up to date twenty years ago, but technology has changed a lot since then. Each year computers become smaller in size, bigger in capacity, and cheaper in price. My mobile can do more things than those bricks you called computers ever could."

"Point taken," conceded Harry.

Hermione agreed. "I suppose a lot more has changed than we originally thought."

"Good. Now that we're all on agreement about who the real genius in the room is, it's time to discuss what you two originally came here for: the hi-jackings. Since it's been established that Muggle five year-olds are smarter than you when it comes to technology, I'm going to try to keep this as simple as possible."

Being talked down to was something Hermione was not use to; usually she was the one who had to explain everything. She supposed it wasn't possible for her to be an expert on everything in the world, but it was still annoying being told that one was dumber than a five year-old. What made it worse was the fact that it was a by a guy who looked young enough to be one of her nephews (son was a bit too much to admit to); she had never felt so _old_.

Harry on the other hand, was mildly amused by the situation, having been on the receiving end of Hermione's many lectures. The expression on her face at the 'five year-old' line made him wish he had a camera to capture the moment so he could share it with Ron later. Darren probably had a camera he could borrow. Then again, Hermione would probably hex him if Harry did manage to sneak a picture. Oh well, he'd just share the story next time he and Ron were alone together.

"So," said Darren, interrupting Hermione's and Harry's thoughts, "What you see on the screen is a three dimensional recreation of what should have happened, and what actually happened."

Both Harry and Hermione looked at the screen in front of them, and both wondered when computers had gotten so thin. The term 'computer' brought distant memories of Dudley's that he had broken very quickly. It was a bulky paper weight compared to the sleek, thin, device before him. Any doubt of Darren underestimating their understanding regarding technology vanished. Darren did know what he was talking about, and Harry and Hermione were inferior to Muggle five year-olds.

On the screen before them, appeared an image of the Hogwarts Express at King's Cross.

"How did you get it so detailed?" asked Hermione. "It looks exactly like the real thing."

"Well it should," replied Darren. "I used pictures as reference. My parents felt bad when I didn't get my Hogwart's letter, so they bought me a hi-tech Muggle camera. It was their way of getting me introducing me to Muggle life, not that I was that sheltered from it with all of dad's records from Muggle bands. One time mum-" Darren then noticed Hermione tapping her foot impatiently. "Anyway, I went crazy that year taking pictures, including my brothers leaving on the train."

The image then shifted, and gave a viewpoint from above, as if Harry was flying directly above the train on his broom.

"We're now switching to an aerial view." Daren then put his fingers on the screen and pushed them toward each other. "I'm zooming out a bit to give you a better view," he explained. "The red dot there," he said as he pointed at the screen, "is the Hogwarts Express. The rest of the dots represent the other trains in the UK. The green dot up here," and he pointed once more,"Represents the Hogsmeade station which is where the Hogwarts Express normally stops. I'm going to press play, and you'll see the routes the trains were supposed to take that day."

Upon nodding that they understood, Darren pressed play, and the image on the screen began to move. The red dot headed north, while other black dots were weaving in and out of each other. Eventually, the red dot stopped on the green, showing the Hogwarts Express had arrived at its destination.

Once it was done, Darren spoke again. "Now I'm going to load another simulation, this time showing what actually happened."

Like the first image, there was a red spot representing the Hogwarts Express, and black dots representing other trains. The Hogwarts Express started off in the same direction as the first one did, but then started to veer right, down, then left, before stopping altogether. Meanwhile, a black dot had started to break apart from the others, before stopping completely at the green station. The dot represented the train that had mistakenly stopped at the Hogsmeade station instead of the Hogwarts Express.

"I appreciate the visual, but this still doesn't explain what the Order of Prometheus _did_," said Hermione once it was over.

"I had to show you that, so you could understand this. I'll rewind a bit, zoom in, and there!"

On the screen was a close up of the Hogwarts Express, and several tracks. "What's 'there', exactly?"

Darren took his finger, and circled around an area where several tracks seemed to converge. A red circle appeared on the screen, following the path line of his finger.

"I'm going to press play again, and pay attention." The video played, and Harry and Hermione watched as the Hogwarts Express started to travel on the track that was on the furthermost right.

Pressing pause, Darren exclaimed, "See! The Express was supposed to go straight, but it went to the right." To demonstrate his point, he 'drew' a red arrow pointing up, and a red arrow pointing to the right.

Harry, sensing Hermione was about to lose it, asked, "I see what they did, but _how_ did they do it?"

"The routes, the trains, everything these days are controlled remotely by computers. Sensors are built into the trains and tracks letting us know the speed, if they're on route, if they're any potential issues, etc... Imagine our system like a castle that has to be protected from invaders. You've seen what happens when the wrong person accesses it. Someone in the Order managed to find a crack in the defenses, and sent a signal telling the wrong track to move, taking the Express in a different direction. They also switched the rest of the tracks around, avoiding accidents, and resulting in the Muggle train arriving at Hogsmeade, a station that Muggles usually avoid."

Letting all that sink in, Darren continued. "Now do you understand why I had to show you the reenactments? If I hadn't, you'd be asking me what I meant by the track switching and signals, and blah blah blah. And no, you're not getting a more detailed explanation. To describe properly how the system works involves using terms and words that even a Muggle five year-old couldn't understand."

Hermione, who had her mouth opened to ask such a question, promptly shut it. Even she was smart enough to know when she was over her head.

"Is there a possibility you could find out who got in?" asked Harry.

A smile appeared on Darren's face at the wizard who was trying to figure out how to use technology to his advantage.

"You mean try to trace it back to the source? Once we discovered the breach, that was the first thing we did after determining how they managed to hack into the system. Whoever did it was clever enough to plant several false trails and cover their tracks carefully. To pull off such a feat-especially from me-takes a lot of skill, that I can't see an ordinary wizard having. Most wizards can't even figure out how to turn a computer on, let alone spoof off of several satellites at once."

"So we're most likely dealing with a Squib or a Muggle?" concluded Hermione.

Darren nodded. "Even by Muggle standards, this takes some skill. It's more likely a Muggle or Muggle-born pulled this off, rather than a Squib."

Turning to Hermione, Harry whispered, "That would fit with our findings at Gringotts."

"Fine, go on then, talk like I'm not here. I'll just keep my last discovery to myself then..."

Even Hermione cracked a smile at that, it had sounded so... Ron. Perhaps Darren wasn't that bad after all.

Harry decided to humor Darren. "What's your discovery?"

Darren grinned as if nothing had happened. "Okay, so there was something that you're little group of Oblivators missed. See, when the Muggles showed up at Hogsmeade, knowing they weren't where they were supposed to be, and seeing a half-giant, they did what most Muggles would do in their situation: they filmed it."

"But we took their moblies," said Hermione.

A wagging finger was shoved in her face. "Somebody's already forgotten what I said earlier. Each year technology is improving, and my mobile can do a hell lot more than those bricks could ever dream of. Including filming video and uploading it to the internet in a matter of seconds."

To prove his point, Darren loaded a site called, 'Youtube', and started to play some of the videos.

"You can obliviate all you want, but once it's on the internet, it's on the internet forever. That's something any politician, celebrity, or teenager can tell you."

Hermione gasped. "If the Muggles that were oblivated see the films, they could experience total recall."

"Is there anything we can do about the videos?" asked Harry, who was just as concerned as Hermione. The last thing the Ministry needed at this point, was for a bunch of Muggles to remember a bunch of funny dressed people attacking them with sticks.

"'We', no. 'Me', yes. There's a couple things _I_ can do. Get the videos removed, claim photoshop was involved..." his voice trailed off at the thought of the possibilities before him, including the slightly illegal ones. Not that Harry or Hermione would know they were illegal. Darren was willing to bet they wouldn't really mind, as long as he was successful.

"Do whatever you have to," said Hermione. She regretted it after Darren's eyes lit up eerily similar to that of the look Fred and George would get whenever they had an idea for a new prank.

"Try not to get into too much trouble," cautioned Harry, who had noticed the familiar look as well.

"I won't," replied Darren, a little too smugly. He then got up from his chair to shake their hands before they left; something he had forgotten to do when they entered his office. At the time he had been too excited about his reenactment and discovery of the Youtube videos to remember his manners. His father would have even boxed his ears for that, behaving in such a way to _Harry Potter_, of all people.

Harry had noticed that Darren had muscles sitting down, but when he stood up, Harry felt like a puny eleven year-old again. Seeing the hesitation on Harry's face, Darren laughed. "What, all computer geeks are supposed to be beanpoles with nerdy glasses? You try being a Squib with four brothers who can hex you. One of the first things you learn how to do, is defend yourself the Muggle way. Go for their face, cut off their oxygen, and hide their wand. They learned to leave me alone eventually, but I still like working out and learning martial arts. Never know when you'll have to defend yourself for real."

"Constant vigilance," quoted Hermione. "A friend of ours use to always say that."

"Smart guy," replied Darren. "Never know when you'll be randomly attacked by some nut-job."

Harry, reminded of Mad-Eye Moody, realized that he had failed as an Auror to always be on constant vigilance. He had been so determined to rid the world of Death Eaters and wizard threats, he had ignored the Muggle threats. An action that he was starting to regret. That regret caused him to have a sudden burst of inspiration, a way to combat the Muggle threats. "Darren, how would you like to work for the Ministry of Magic?"

****Author's Note****

I feel so special, I got three reviews last chapter! Specifically, Moixxx, Xterker23, and Wise Girl16. They all deserve a big round of thanks, and keep the reviews coming. I will respond to signed reviews, but since Moixxx's wasn't signed, here's my response: I decided a long time ago that if I was ever going to write a HP fic, it was going to have be different and original from the rest of the stories in the section. I put some effort into my characters to make them realistic and not Sueish, so it's nice to know all of the effort is paying off.

A couple notes on this chapter:

Donaghan Tremlett plays bass for the Weird Sisters, which, according to HP Wiki, is Harry's favorite band. 'Do the Hippogriff' and 'This is the Night' were never named in the books, but they were in the fourth movie when the band played at Hogwarts for the Yule Ball. He got married in 1995, and was seen at Dumbledore's funeral. Since his favorite Quidditch team was the Kenmare Kestrels (according to a Famous Wizard Card), I thought it'd be natural for him to name some of his sons after members of the team. Darren gets his name from Darren O'Hare, a former keeper.

Now, about Darren. His personality is based on Alec Hardison from Leverage, with his appearance based on Eliot Spencer from Leverage too. I figured that as a Squib, he would probably have had to learn how to defend himself from siblings with Muggle techniques, as he explains. He was quite fun to write, and I'm looking forward to writing him more. Like I said last chapter, the wizarding world doesn't have somebody with Emmy's computer skills, and it was time for her to have an opponent.

As for Darren's reenactment, and hi-jacking explanation, I hope they sounded legit. I know there are programs out there that can do the kind of rendering his did, along with the touch screen technology. I'm not sure how connected rail systems are to computers, but I figure in six years, there's a good possibility they'll be at that level.

I didn't mean for Hermione to turn out so annoying this chapter, but it made sense. She's been a leader in the Ministry, played a crucial role in defeating Voldemort, and has her own Chocolate Frog's Card. I doubt in that time she's been talked down to very often, or has been in a situation where she didn't know that much. She may have been a Muggle-born, but I can't see her keeping up with it since she lives mainly in the wizarding world.

A final note, the Youtube videos were what Emmy was secretly hoping for. It really does seem to be human nature that whenever in a time of crisis or chaos, we reach for the nearest camera and just have to record what's happening, and upload it to the internet. Something the wizards would never guess at.

Next chapter Emmy reacts to Darren interfering with her videos, and starts to plot. Again.

That's all for now, thanks for reading, and don't forget to leave a review!


	7. A New Opponent

I do not own the rights to Harry Potter. If I did, Harry would have been much less angsty.

**A New Opponent **

The sound of thunder boomed outside the windows. Rain hammered away at the pane, and lightning danced across the sky. Some might be put off by the gloomy weather, but Emmy had loved storms since she was young. Given that it was mid-September and winter seemed to be coming faster than usual, the chances for a late afternoon thunderstorm were declining quickly. Soon, winter would arrive, and Emmy wouldn't see a thunderstorm until spring.

Currently she was in the main room of the flat, which had two big windows allowing her to view the storm, while she was on her laptop. Upon returning to the flat, Ash and Nick had uploaded the pictures they had taken at St. Mungo's of the birth records. Before they left, they even had the foresight to do death records as well. While it was uncommon for wizards and Squibs to die young, it wasn't impossible; it was best to have all their bases covered.

As for Emmy, she had arrived about two days later. While she did break into Gringotts a day after Ash and Nick visited St. Mungo's, she also had a longer distance to travel than they did. St. Mungo's was in London, close to the flat. Hogwarts however, was very north of London, and involved taking a train to a small Muggle town near Hogsmeade, walking to Hogsmeade (any Muggle forms of transportation would have been suspicious), and then making the journey into Hogwarts from Honeyduke's cellar.

Sure she could have traveled using magic-the Knight Bus, a broom, or the Floo Network, apparating- but they all had their faults. Somebody might get chatty on the bus and remember her later, or connect the stranger that exited at Hogsmeade with the stranger at the castle. Emmy was only mediocre at flying, and such a distance was beyond her capabilities. The Floo Network posed the same issue as the Knight Bus did, being that if she was discovered, it'd be rather easy to trace her back to London or have witnesses. Apparating was completely out of the question. A semester was all the magical training she actually had; if she put her mind to it, she supposed she could learn to apparate after several intense months of studying, but Emmy didn't have several months to spend on the subject. Besides, if she accidentally ended up splinching herself the first time, it'd mean a trip to St. Mungo's, and all her hard work would be ruined. Her natural aversion of using magic aside, the Muggle way was truly the best way to travel in her case.

Walking had been rather tiring, but Emmy managed to sneak into and out of Hogwarts successfully, and not be detected. For food and shelter, she used the Honeyduke's cellar. Sugar and candy was certainly not the best substance, but beggars couldn't be choosers. Tucked between some boxes of sweets, she spent the night before heading back to the flat the next day. Despite sleeping on a cold hard floor, she managed to get into a deep sleep due to being tired from all her walking.

She had been through worse (and better), but Emmy was extremely grateful for a long hot shower, some decent food, and her big comfy bed greeting her upon returning home. It wasn't till the next day, the day of the thunderstorm, did she finally get around to uploading her own information, and using an analytical program she had designed.

The program was designed to cross check the names of the Hogwart's students, along with their birthday, against the records from St. Mungo's. If a name on a birth certificate did not appear in the magical book, the name was then checked for a death record. If there was no match there, the name would be flagged as a potential Squib, and further research would have to be done.

If a name appeared in the book, but did not appear in the records of St. Mungo's, an internet search was conducted, along with accessing the Muggle government's records. If the witch or wizard had a Muggle birth certificate, then they were most likely a Muggle-born. The program then searched for a current address, along with the possibility of siblings, and whether or not the Muggle-born had attended public school, but had suddenly stopped after the summer of their eleventh birthday. A candidate who met that criteria was almost certainly a Muggle-born, and all potential siblings were then flagged for further investigation. Emmy doubted even the Muggles knew the true extent of how much personal information was available, without having to hack.

While her program did its thing, Emmy decided to check Youtube to see how many views the videos were up to. One of the things she had secretly hoped for, was for the Muggles that mistakenly arrived at Hogsmeade to tape their experience and upload it to the internet before the Ministry got involved. The day after the incident, she had discovered her hopes had come true. The views had trickled in, but Emmy figured it'd take a couple more days before the videos would go truly viral.

The image of the Ministry trying to figure out how to respond once millions of Muggles worldwide witnessed physical proof of the magic world, made Emmy giggle; no amount of obliviating could make all those Muggles forget. She laughed again as another thought crossed her mind, that if it wasn't for the Obliviate Charm, wizards would have been discovered centuries ago due to their own incompetence and idiocy. Whoever discovered the spell problem had a monument somewhere devoted to him, or at least he should.

Laughter was quickly replaced by swearing as the page loaded. All of the videos were gone. Some had been taken down due to copyright issues or indecency, at least, that's what the site claimed. Others had been replaced with shoddy video that clearly had been tampered with. A quick glance at other major video sites all showed the same results.

Somebody had messed with her videos. Somebody who knew what they were doing, and the danger the videos truly posed, especially to those who had been forced to forget the incident. Determined to figure out who the somebody was, Emmy started going through the history of each page to see when it was modified, and by whom. This revealed that the pages had all been modified around the same time earlier in the week, but by different people- site administration, account users, and others. More research revealed that Somebody had hi-jacked the accounts to make the modifications.

This Somebody, was clearly a threat to Emmy and the Order of Prometheus. A traditional witch or wizard was out of the question given the amount of technical knowledge Somebody had to possess. A Squib, or Muggle-born perhaps, then. A Squib would know about the wizarding world, but how much technical knowledge would they truly have? They would be handicapped by not having any exposure till their eleventh year. Meanwhile, most Muggle-borns ceased to keep up with technology upon receiving their Hogwarts letter.

On second thought, Emmy was starting to relish this Somebody. She had thought it would be a cake walk to take down the Ministry, but now that it seemed that they had Somebody on their side, they were starting to actually become a threat. A threat that Emmy welcomed. This Somebody person held the promise to be a worthy opponent to play against, and she was starting to look forward to it.

Before she could make her next move though, she had to figure out Somebody's identity. A clap of thunder startled Emmy from her planning, almost as if it was agreeing with her.

* * *

When Ash and Nick arrived back at the flat soaked by the rain, and with groceries in hand, they were greeted by a scary image. Emmy had a devious grin on her face and was humming 'Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah' (Nick was the one who actually recognized the song), all while typing away on her laptop, oblivious to them.

"Emmy?" ventured Nick, who was trying to recall a time featuring Emmy in such a mood. When he did remember it, the knowledge that it didn't end well caused his feeling of unease to increase.

"Hmm..." she responded.

Ash tried to get a better reply out of her. "Emmy, what's going on?"

Emmy faced her with the Cheshire-cat grin on her face. "We have a new opponent. The Ministry seems to have chosen a new knight to lead their crusade against the Order, and I've just discovered who it is."

Nick and Ash instantly felt sorry for the person. The person may be working against them, but they most likely didn't deserve whatever Emmy was about to do.

"Wait," said Nick, "What exactly did this person do to you?"

She shrugged. "That doesn't matter. All that matters is that he knows that I know who he is, while he doesn't know who I am."

"Uh-huh..." responded Nick.

"Yep," Emmy replied in a perky voice. "I'm so glad that you two are back and have resolved your issues that may or may not be romantic related." Ash blushed, and Nick looked to the floor at that explanation, while Emmy continued. "Now we can go out and do some recruiting."

"Yay, recruiting," said Nick sarcastically. He whispered to Ash, "You wouldn't happen to have those Weasel things on you that cause you to become sick?"

"No," she answered once realizing what he was referring to. "Perhaps if we just leave the room, she'll go back to normal..."

"You both suck at whispering," said Emmy. "We'll have to work on that during the training."

"What training?" asked Nick.

"Training the recruits, silly. We can't just expect a bunch of Squibs and Muggle-borns to know what to do, they have to be trained."

Ash and Nick looked at each other, thinking the same thing. Maybe the Ministry's new knight didn't have it that bad after all. At least he wasn't going to have train a bunch of Squibs and Muggles.

* * *

_Meanwhile, in another part of London..._

"Hey, dad," said Darren into a telephone, "Could you get in touch with Harry and let him know I'm going to need his help with a little situation?"

Being arrested for allegedly being a terrorist, a murderer, rapist, pedophile, identity theft, fraud, and countless other offenses was not how Darren planned on spending his Sunday. At least he was allowed a phone call, and had talked his parents into getting one so he could keep in touch in a non-magical way. Something was telling him that this wasn't an innocent mix-up, and it was going to take a wizard with connections to get him out of it.

A few bribes, memory spells, and government cover-ups later, he returned home to discover his computer had been hacked by a familiar organziation.

He grinned at his computer. To think, his brothers had once called his job boring.

****Author's Note****

****I'd like to thank Wise Girl16 for reviewing last chapter. I hate begging for reviews, but it'd be nice to get more than one per chapter.

Oh well. So Emmy has figured out who Darren is, and has gotten her revenge (for now). Next chapter will reveal a bit of Nick and Ash's background while they recruit new members.

I hope I described what Emmy did as believable, since my knowledge on hacking is limited.

Thanks for reading, and if possible, leave a review!


	8. Living Among Wizards

I do not own the rights to Harry Potter. If I did, there would have been a better resolution between Harry and the Malfoy's.

**Living Among Wizards**

The recruitment process was very tedious, and wasn't something that could be done in a single day, or weekend. Tracking down each and every Squib and Muggle sibling took time. As did the travel to reach each one, and assessing whether or not they would be open to the idea. Why waste all that time and energy when they would just go running back to the Ministry and snitch? Wizards and witches were well-known gossips, possibly more so than Muggles. By the time the three left, their visit could be splashed all over the front of Witch Weekly. Which is why caution was of the utmost importance.

There were approximately 1,238 Muggle siblings of wizards in the United Kingdom, ranging in age from 15-70; and approximately 42 Squibs ranging in age from 15-70 who made it to the final recruitment list. Well there were certainly some younger ones, fifteen was the absolute minimum age allowed for recruitment. Ideally, the minimum age limit would have seventeen, the age the wizarding world recognizes for when young wizard and witches officially become adults. However, given that Emmy, Ash, and Nick, were all under that age, they couldn't be taken seriously if they were the youngest members.

Contacting the Muggles was a relatively easy process, the hardest part being the time it took to visit each one. Squibs were a different story. Those who lived in the Muggle world were rather easy to visit. Some even clustered together in neighborhoods, helping each other adjust to Muggle life while keeping in touch with the wizarding world. Others remained at their family homes, refusing to step foot in the Muggle world, preferring to be hermits. These were the hardest ones to get in touch with, due to all the wards which surrounded the home, and watchful relatives who might pose a threat to the Order.

The plan was for Nick and Emmy to start with the Muggles since they knew the most about the Muggle world, while Ash dealt with the Squibs since they could relate to her better.

* * *

Growing up as a Squib in a wizarding world, sucked in Ash's opinion. You lived your entire life surrounded by magic; told that someday you too would receive the magical letter from Hogwarts to learn how to properly use it. Eleven years were spent waiting for that one day, that one moment. You wait up till midnight, the end of your eleventh birthday for your letter. Even when it doesn't come, you convince yourself that the owl got lost or is running late. It's not until your parents receive a letter from Hogwarts after sending them countless owls, declaring that there was no mistake, no lost owl, that you are indeed a Squib, it finally sinks in.

Such was the case with Ash, or Astrid Nott. She grew up in a traditional, and pureblood family. While she didn't show any signs of accidental magic, her parents kept saying neither did Neville Longbottom and look how he turned out. So nobody was too concerned, not until she didn't get her letter upon her eleventh birthday.

While it was rare for a Squib to be completely despised and kicked out of a family, the more common reaction was pity. Pity for the child who didn't fit into the world they were born into, and knew nothing of the world they did belong to. Pity for the child who would never know the joys of performing magic.

Ash's parents fell into the latter category. They treated her softly, gently, as if she was a fragile piece of glass that could break at any second. The rest of her family wasn't much better. They would discuss her condition in hushed tones as if it was some sort of incurable, fatal illness she had been diagnosed with.

Eventually, her parents decided it would be best for Ash to go to a Muggle boarding school, exposed to Muggle life. It was a common fate for a Squib, to be sent into the world they would eventually have to live in. Unfortunately, Ash was thrust into the Muggle world without any knowledge of it.

Electricity, mobiles, internet, cars even pens were beyond her understanding at first. Her first night at the school was spent sobbing quietly into pillow of how unfair everything was. She didn't understand much of what was going on, and all of her fellow first-years seemed to think she was an ignorant freak. They assumed her lack of knowledge was due to her living in some shack in the middle of nowhere, secluded from the rest of the world. They didn't tease her for her lack of knowledge, but pitied her. Calling her a poor little thing, they were determined to guide her and educate her.

Ash didn't want their pity. She had grown up in the lap of luxury, surrounded by house elves fulfilling her every need. A poor little thing she most certainly was _not_. Being forced to accept their pity and guidance made her die a little on the inside each time, knowing her proud pureblood ancestors would be rolling over in their graves knowing a descendant of theirs was being pitied by_ Muggles._

Then she met Nick. He didn't pity her like the girls did, but understood the reason for her lack of knowledge, that she came from a magical background, not a Muggle one. It was October, and Ash had been studying at the school library, trying to understand Muggle history which her private tutors had not covered. Why would she ever need to know such a thing when she was destined for Hogwarts?

She sat at a table in the corner, hidden mostly from view by large bookshelves. Ever since the girls had taught her the basics about Muggle life, Ash had taken to trying to avoid them and their pity looks. It was growing dark outside, so Ash decided to turn on the small lamp that was placed on top of the table. Ash was quite proud of herself for knowing how to turn the switch on and off.

Except it wasn't working. She kept clicking and clicking one way, but there was no light. When that failed, she turned the switch the other way, and still no light. Frowning, she wondered what she could be doing wrong.

Her answer came from Nick, who had gotten tired of watching her struggle with the lamp. He had managed to find the one seat in the library that allowed a person a view of her. "The bulb is burned out, you need a new one," he explained as he took the seat across from her.

"I knew that," she said, snapping at him. Her blushing cheeks betrayed her though.

Nick looked at her curiously. "You don't know what a lightbulb is, do you?" He asked.

"Do too." Once again, her cheeks proved to be traitors.

"Are you a witch?"

"No," she said bitterly, not bothering to question how he came to that conclusion. Muggles could be so confusing sometimes, and Ash no longer bothered to understand their way of thinking.

"Squib?" His tone was more uncertain, but Ash's widening eyes confirmed his suspicions this time instead of her traitorous cheeks.

"Are you one too?" she asked, trying hard to not give up her hopes. The odds were slim, but it would be so wonderful to have finally met somebody her own age, who knew what she was going through.

He shook his head. "No, brother is a Muggle-born. Name's Nick by the way." He then extended his hand in a greeting gesture.

"Astrid," she said shaking it, "My family calls me Ash."

After that, Nick and her were inseparable. He taught her everything she needed to know about Muggles, while she answered all his questions about magic. It was he who took all her questions in stride, including those that others might have laughed at. It was also he who introduced her eventually to Emmy, and her plan to unite the two worlds.

Ash agreed almost immediately to joining their cause. By combining the two worlds, Squibs like her would grow up with the knowledge of Muggle life, and not have to be pitied or looked down upon. Perhaps even, her family would eventually see her lack of magic as a good thing, rather than a terminal disease or prison sentence like she too once believed. She would achieve fame, join the history books, and make her family proud.

So why couldn't she quash the feeling of dread that was in her stomach? The feeling that things were not going to turn out as she hoped?

She tried her best to ignore the feeling and concentrate on other things, such as her first recruit. Ash had owled them, and they were due any minute to meet her at some Muggle cafe in London. What they had to discuss was certainly not meant for wizard ears.

* * *

Nick viewed growing up as of a sibling of a Muggle-born to be just as sucky as growing up a Squib.

His brother had never even been interested in magic until the day he received his letter. Even then he viewed it as a joke, until the wizard who was explaining everything turned the couch into a teacup and making it dance around the house. That certainly got his attention.

It was so unfair. Nick had been the one obsessed with _Lord of the Rings, Merlin_, and the _Chronicles of Narnia_. Sure he was only and really didn't understand everything in the books, but that didn't stop him from pretending to do spells or crawling into wardrobes looking for the way to Narnia.

His older brother had teased him, calling him a dork, telling him there was so no such thing as magic. Then the letter came and everything had changed.

Suddenly, his brother was just obsessed with learning everything about magic as Nick was. They both gawked in Diagon Alley, taking in the magical sights. Nick had begged his parents for a matching set of wizard robes until they gave in. For the first time the brothers were actually close, bonding that summer as they examined all the wizard supplies his brother would need for school, reading _Hogwarts: A History_, learning about Quidditch, trying out wizard sweets.

Things didn't change once his brother went off to school. Nick would receive an owl nearly every day, detailing his brother's experiences. Sometimes he would send wizard candy, or wizard photos of his friends. On the wall in his bedroom, Nick had a calendar counting down the days until his own eleventh birthday, for he was certain he too would receive a letter.

Except the letter never came. Nick asked his brother to check if there was some sort of mistake, but there wasn't. Nick was definitely a Muggle, and nothing was going to change that. His brother tried to comfort him, telling him magic really wasn't all that great. Instead of appreciating the comfort, Nick felt insulted. Hadn't they spent all of last summer studying magic, talking about how cool it was? Hadn't Nick wrote him of all the fun he was having at Hogwarts, how he was looking forward to Nick joining him? Telling Nick that magic really wasn't that great, was like telling a dog that its canned food was better than a steak: nothing but a boldface lie.

After that, their relationship soured. Nick stopped responding to his brother's letters, and avoided him when he came home that summer. That wasn't the only change. Nick got rid of all his books and other things magical, including the robes he had begged his parents for. That fall, instead of going to Hogwarts, he went to a Muggle boarding school.

There he met Ash, and started caring about magic again. Hearing everything from a Squib's perspective was quite interesting. His brother had never mentioned how wizards survived without Muggle devices in their day to day life. How they cooked, washed clothes, or just lived. Ash also explained concepts such as what a mudblood and pureblood were, and had more information regarding Voldemort than any book Nick had read contained. In return, he taught how to live as a Muggle.

How Ash was treated by her family for simply being a Squib made Nick furious. Her family treated it like a death sentence, thinking her life was over. Living a Muggle life wasn't easy, but it wasn't the worst thing ever either. Ash had her health, had a family that cared for her (even though they may not express it in the best way), and was well-off.

It took Nick a while to get that through to Ash, who viewed her new life as a prison sentence. While she was trying to get by living among Muggles, she wasn't enjoying it. She didn't understand that there were wonderful things about being a Muggle. Films, amusement parks, video games, television, and more. Bit by bit, Nick exposed Ash, until she finally realized that life among Muggles wasn't that bad.

Particularly, she loved films. To her it was a combination of wizard radio, moving photos, and wizard portraits. Muggles seemed to have an unlimited imagination and came up with the most amazing stories. When their stories incorporated elements beyond their capacity to film, they would come up with ingenious solutions to portray the element whether it be magic, human flight, or alien invaders. Magic could have made things so much simpler and Ash admired the Muggles for coming up with non-magical solutions. The only thing wizards had that could be comparable was wizard chess or Quidditch, and both bored Ash, which amused Nick.

Actually, her reaction to all those things amused Nick who had taken everything for granted. Ash was like a newborn, oohing and awwing over the simplest things, a look of amazement spreading across her face when she finally comprehended how it worked. Of course, he had the same look of amazement upon his introduction to her world. She would always laugh at the expression on his face whenever she explained a new magical concept to him.

He was fourteen when Emmy found him. She was always vague about how exactly she did, but Nick didn't care. All he cared about was getting back at his brother for having magic when it should have been Nick. What better way to bring down his oh-so-precious magical government, and instituting a new one, a better one? By the time Nick was done, his brother would be on knees, admitting that Nick deserved to be more of a wizard than he ever did.

What he was looking forward to the most though, was Ash's family. They would finally recognize how powerful Muggles really were, and apologize for how they treated her. They would see being a Squib was not a curse, but a blessing that they would never know.

As he went to visit his first Muggle, Nick was whistling 'Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah'-something he had picked up from Emmy-under his breath. His future had never seemed brighter, and nothing was standing in his way.

****Author's Note****

I'd like to thank Wise Girl16 for being my only reviewer last chapter. I appreciate long reviews, and will respond to signed ones.

I know I said that they'd be recruiting this chapter, but Ash's and Nick's backgrounds turned out longer than I thought. So next chapter look forward to that. I realize this chapter was a bit filler, but it was rather important to understand Ash's and Nick's backgrounds before they could go recruiting Squibs and Muggles. Emmy has her own background, but it's going to be a while before its revealed.

Thanks for reading, and if possible leave a review letting me know what you think.


	9. In Plain Sight

I do not own the rights to Harry Potter. If I did, Harry's eyes would have been green in the movies. One of the most important details from the books, completely ignore.

**In Plain Sight**

Ash's first meeting had gone so well, the next day she received an invitation to a party which would be attended by Squibs. Esther Adams, the Squib she had met with at the cafe, was hosting a get together at her house which was located in a neighborhood full of Squibs, all of whom were invited. The party alone would introduce her to about seven or eight, a fifth of the Squib population.

The house was located in a quiet little place that was on the outskirts of London. When Ash arrived, she found that not only were Squibs there, but their families were as well. Some were married to fellow Squibs, while others had married Muggles. Children were running through the house as well, leaving chaos in their wake.

For a second she was reminded of her childhood. Her parents, aunt and uncle, and other adults would be talking among each other about the latest news in the wizarding world. Meanwhile she and her cousin, Scorpius, would be running around the manor, pretending to be Aurors and Death Eaters. That was back in the good days, before she had known she was a Squib.

Which is why she was here, now, at a Squib residence.

"Oh Astrid," said Esther, "Sorry I missed you at the door, but I've been busy trying to keep the children under control."

Ash smiled at her, and didn't even wince at the Astrid part. She had told Esther multiple times to call her Ash, that only her parents would call her Astrid if they were in a serious mood, but Esther hadn't gotten the message.

"That's fine," Ash answered, deciding to give up on the Astrid issue. "I've just been admiring your home."

Esther laughed. "Oh no, my home isn't big enough to handle a crowd like this. I live a couple houses away, but this house belongs to Oswalt Prewett, he's a stockbroker. There he is now."

The man Esther was pointing out was rather small and his snowy white hair gave away his age. Ash recognized the last name Prewett, but had thought that most of them were killed during Voldemort's time. Perhaps being a Squib had spared him such a fate. He was talking to some tall girl, who Esther informed her was his daughter Mafalda. Even with a Muggle for a mother and a Squib for a father, she had turned out tto be a talented witch who now worked for the Ministry. Ash made a mental note she was to be avoided, lest she start asking questions.

"Oswalt is rather alright, but his daughter is an outright snob, lording her magic over the rest of us. Here, this is Louis Longbottom. He just joined our little group and can answer all your questions about adapting to Muggle life."

Adapting to Muggle life had been the excuse Ash used to meet with Esther originally. After all, she couldn't exactly send her an owl, asking if Esther wanted to join the Order. So instead, she had sent her an owl mentioning that Ash had heard she was a successful Squib and was wondering if Esther could help her.

Which, wasn't that much of a lie. By the age of thirty-five, Esther had managed to start her own restaurant and catering business, all while balancing being married to a Muggle and raising three children. One of which had already shown signs of magic. In Ash's eyes this did qualify as success, Esther had managed to transition to Muggle life, while still keeping in contact with her wizarding side.

It was toward the end of the conversation, that they talked about the latest news in the wizarding world. Specifically, how the Order of Prometheus might affect Squibs. Esther was fond of the idea of combining the two worlds, but didn't think the Order would actually succeed. Ash was determined to prove her wrong.

Louis Longbottom, one of the many Longbottoms, was a sullen looking teen. His dark hair was hiding his face, and he seemed to be in a sulk. He brightened up a bit once Ash sat down next to him on the couch.

"Hey, I'm no longer the youngest one here."

That the most interesting thing he would say over the next five minutes. Whenever Ash mentioned the Order, he would dismiss her and then tried to flirt with her. Ash was itching for magic, if only so she could silence him. Five minutes later, she wanted to hex him. Then she was saved by a nice looking guy who appeared in his twenties. When he introduced himself, Ash let out a small gasp.

Darren Tremlett. The same Darren Tremlett that Emmy had sought revenge on, a new opponent, she had claimed.

Luckily, Darren assumed the gasp was due to his last name, his father being a member of a wizarding band. Ash's mind was so busy trying to figure out his motives, if he was sent there by the Ministry, or if it was just a coincidence, that she barely noticed what he and Louis were talking about. Something about bite sizes, and how they were getting smaller and cheaper. Ash had no idea what it meant, but Emmy could explain it to her later. Part of her was tempted to mention something about Emmy's revenge and inquire how he got out of it, while another part reminded her how stupid it'd be, and how she'd have a lot of explaining to do. That part won.

Then he started asking her questions. Her age, where she was from, how her family reacted to the news, what her future plans were. She didn't know if she was being interrogated, or making small talk.

To the best of her ability Ash managed to answer the questions, then she was saved once more. This time, by somebody she actually liked, Esther.

"Darren, leave the poor girl alone. She's still trying to adjust to Muggle life, and you're frightening her with your computer talk, while she's probably never used one before."

While Ash appreciated the sentiment, she had used a computer before. Nick had shown her how to use one. One of her favorite things was watching films.

Not paying attention to the scowl on Ash's face, Esther then introduced her to the other Squibs at the party. Marvin Cowl a lawyer, Edie Woods, a doctor, and Lila Hopkins, the Muggle Studies teacher at Hogwarts.

Out of the three others, Ash knew who she wanted to talk to for the rest of the night.

* * *

"Why are we here?" asked Harry, for the tenth time.

"I told you, to get a better understanding of what we don't know about the Muggle world," Hermione explained again, for the tenth time.

Hermione's faith in teachers hadn't changed over the years. Which was they were about to talk to Lila Hopkins, Muggle Studies teacher at Hogwarts. A Squib, but one who understood both Muggle life and wizarding life. Harry suspected the true reason for the visit, was how miffed Hermione was after visiting Darren and feeling like a first year. So she did what Hermione usually did when she discovered a topic she had no knowledge about: researched.

Harry had hoped that Hermione was smarter than going to the Muggle Studies teacher for said research. He doubted that the class had changed much from their days at Hogwarts, teaching concepts such as electricity was essential to Muggle survival, or that Muggles were simple beings. He supposed the electricity thing was true, but it hadn't always been the case. There were still parts left in the world where Muggles didn't have electricity, and they were surviving. If the class hadn't taught Arthur Weasley, who had gotten an NEWT in the subject, what the purpose of a rubber duck was, Harry didn't have much hope for this Hopkins person teaching Hermione what she needed to know to be on par with Darren.

Instead of wasting his time with Hopkins, Harry visited briefly with his children and the many Weasley offspring, while other students gawked at the Boy Who Lived. Used to the attention after all these years, he patiently answered their questions. Eventually, the thing turned into an impromptu Defense Against the Dark Arts class.

The topics ranged from simple spells that could be used for defense, to how one's form might affect the strength of the spells used.

Then one student, a Gryffindor Prefect from the look of her robes asked, "What can we do to defend ourselves against the Order of Prometheus?"

Forty pairs of eyes turned their attention on them. The Ministry of Magic had declared the Order a threat to the wizarding world, but had failed to declare what exactly made them a threat. The Order wasn't going around killing Muggles and Muggle lovers like the Death Eaters had done, though they had managed to cause the same level chaos in a short period of time.

"Well," began Harry, trying to figure out the best advice he could give to the students without admitting not much was known about the Order. "Always be aware of your surroundings, and never underestimate anybody or anything, no matter how insignificant they might seem. If you see or hear anything suspicious, immediately report it to your teachers, and never engage a suspect unless they pose a direct threat to you, or somebody else."

There, that seemed appropriate for the situation while still being vague enough. The last bit at the end came from his years of experience, and was mainly directed at his children, who seemed determined to get into as much trouble as he had when he was younger. Besides the train incident, Albus had already managed to get into trouble by sneaking into the Forbidden Forest (a dare by his cousin, Fred) and James had tried restarting Dumbledore's Army in order to fight the Order of Prometheus, who he was convinced would be attacking Hogwarts at any moment. It was only October, so who knew what future owls awaited him and Ginny, telling of their sons latest exploits. When Lily joined them next year, he was sure that it'd only get worse.

His answer seemed to satisfy the student, and he then found himself talking about the Battle of the Hogwarts and how it had changed once it was rebuilt. By that point, Neville had joined him and they started to reminisce about their younger years, of the times when they were more concerned passing classes than fighting a war.

"Mr. Potter," said a voice, and Harry looked up into the eyes of Aurora Sinestra, Deputy Headmistress of Hogwarts. "A moment please?"

Harry excused himself from the group, while Neville took over. He followed her to her office, and wondered what his sons had done this time.

* * *

A few days later, Ash was alone at the flat with Emmy, while Nick was with more Muggles. Their recruitment techniques had clashed, so they were doing things separately. Emmy preferred to be subtle, similar to Ash, while Nick preferred to be more blunt and direct regarding the Order's goals. They had only managed to spend a couple days with each other, before Emmy returned to the apartment, finding Ash was nearly done with the Squibs.

They filled each other in on certain developments, and Emmy smiled at the part of hearing about Darren at the Squib party.

"Maybe you can contact him, cozy up to him, and convince him to be a mentor of some type, that way we can keep an eye on him," she suggested.

Ash glared. "If anybody is doing the cozying, it's you. He may be a Squib, but it felt like he was performing Legilmency the entire time, and I didn't like it one bit. Besides, I know everything I want to know about computers, and could care less about gigabytes and megabytes."

Emmy had explained to her what the 'bite sizes' had actually been about, and Ash was pleased to know that she hadn't missed out on anything really important.

"Fine," said Emmy, and pouted. "But it would have been a great opportunity, a spy of ours, hidden in plain sight."

Ash rolled her eyes at Emmy. "You're forgetting about the other spy I managed to get for us."

"True, one of Hogwart's own teachers. She owled me the other day, apparently Harry Potter and Hermione Weasley stopped by for a visit. Hermione wanted to know about Muggle electronics, while Harry thrilled the students with tales from his youth."

"That's it?" asked Ash. "Do you think they know about the break-in?"

"I didn't take anything, though it is possible that Sinestra suspected somebody was in her office. Even if she did figure that out, and told them exactly what happen, it won't change anything. They don't know what we're doing with the information. Any other news?"

"That Longbottom boy e-mailed me for more information regarding the Order and if I know how he can get involved. Doubt he cares that much, it's probably just an excuse to see me again."

Emmy laughed at the expression of disgust on Ash's face. "Reply to him, a recruit is a recruit. If he tries to pull anything, tell Nick, and he'll take care of him."

"I can take care of myself, I don't need Nick to."

"It's not a matter of you being able to take care of yourself, it's a matter of you and Nick finally getting serious with each other and showing the Longbottom boy you're taken."

"We're just friends," protested Ash.

"No, Nick and I are just friends. You and Nick are something else."

Ash refused to answer, and turned her attention to replying to the e-mail. How did one say, 'Thank you, but I'm not interested in you, but would you mind helping us take on the government' politely?

"Denial isn't just a river in Egypt you know," commented Emmy.

She then had a pillow chucked in her face.

****Author's Note****

Last chapter got four reviews, the most of any chapter! For that I'd like to thank Mryna Maeve, The Rain, Wise Girl16, and Son of Whitebeard, and say to keep them coming. I'll respond personally to signed reviews. I'd like to say to The Rain, that yes Nick and Ash's background are sad, but very few people from happy backgrounds decide to take down a government. There's a reason why Voldemort had such a sucky life and turned out the way he did.

Some notes about this chapter: I figure Aurors and Death Eaters is the wizard version of cops and robbers. Mafalda was suppose to be appear in the fourth book, but Rita took her place. She was an annoying know it all, and the daughter of Molly's Squib cousin, a stockbroker/accountant that her family didn't talk about. I gave him the name Oswalt and included him in this chapter.

Actually, Wise Girl16 inspired the Muggle Studies teacher bit, along with including Molly's cousin. Both were not part of my original plan for the story, but they make nice additions. Mryna Maeve inspired the last part at the end about Ash's and Nick's relationship. They're not officially a couple, but are still very close to each other, and might as well be a couple to those who see them together.

That's all for now, thanks for reading, and if possible leave a review!


	10. Distractions

I do not own the rights to Harry Potter. If I did, the encyclopedia would have been out by now.

**Distractions**

It was Mid-October by the time the Order's recruitment was done. To divert suspicion from their true activities, Emmy arranged for several incidents to occupy the Aurors. Small things to keep them busy such as applying her revenge on Darren to the entire Ministry of Magic Law Enforcement Department. Or sending them cryptic notes with possible attack locations such as the Ministry of Magic, Hogwarts, Diagon Alley, Harry Potter's destroyed house in Godric's Hollow.

The locations weren't just limited to the wizarding world, but the Muggle one as well. Locations such as Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, Parliament. The Aurors had to take each threat seriously, even after the first couple attacks it was apparent the notes were nothing but red herrings. The one time the notes weren't taken seriously, might result in numerous, preventable deaths, a chance the Aurors couldn't take.

Sometimes the notes didn't contain attack locations, but were just a random string of numbers and letters that Emmy would send. She loved screwing with the Aurors, knowing that they had to spend countless hours over something as simple as 'I like eggs', just because it could be a clue, or hint to the Order's plans. It had quickly become her favorite form of relaxation, how to taunt the Aurors today, how many crazy things could she come up with? Ordering flowers, take-out, etc... from Muggle companies and directing them to St. Mungo's and the Ministry, with specific instructions to get the Muggles into the buildings. The delivery men were so desperate to be paid for their work, they'd do anything, including flushing themselves down a toilet, walking into a telephone booth and dialing random numbers, walking through windows and walls.

Then the recruitment process was over, and it was time for training. During training, the diversions would continue, but Emmy wouldn't have the time to do them like she was used to. Ever since her and Nick's disagreement, she had been staying away from Muggles, and had focused on her training schedule and screwing with the Aurors.

Emmy had told Ash it was a clash of their recruitment techniques, subtle vs direct, which was true. She was unsure what Nick had told her on the mobile and through e-mail, but there had been more to it than that.

* * *

The plan in the beginning, was for them to both start together in London. Once done with London, Emmy would head east to Canterbury, then follow the southern coast to the west, before heading north. Nick meanwhile would head north to Southend, and follow the eastern coast north into Scotland, before turning south. It was around that area, the two should meet up, letting them hit the cities in the middle they had missed, along with Ireland and the outlying isles.

They had barely walked out of the first house, before Nick grabbed her arm and pulled her close to him. "What was that?" he hissed.

"What was what?" she had asked, confused. His mood had been great going in, whistling that one song Emmy couldn't remember the name of, and had seemed happy inside. When had his attitude gone south?

The conversation with Erica Dewing, a thirty year-old lawyer with a witch for a sister, had gone pretty well in Emmy's mind. She had seemed interested in the Order. Posing as siblings who were lost and had a dead mobile, they had managed to talk their way into the house. Erica had offered to call their parents or take them home, but they lied, saying that their parents' mobile numbers and their address were all on the dead mobile, which needed to be charged. As Emmy took out the charger, she had also 'accidentally' dropped a Chocolate Frogs card from her bag, and Erica had picked it up, recognizing what it was. Emmy and Nick revealed they had a sister at Hogwarts, while Erica volunteered that she had a sister who was a beater for the Holyhead Harpies.

The three talked more, about finding out magic existed, and growing up with witches in the family. Erica revealed that her and her sister had a bit of a competitive streak, always trying to outdo each other since they were children. Her sister believed being a witch trumped being a lawyer, which was why Erica had gotten involved with politics and was hoping to be the Prime Minister someday. Of course, knowing her sister, that'd just push her to become Minister of Magic eventually. Due to the sibling rivalry, Erica was interested in the Order, especially if it meant getting ahead of her sister for once.

An hour late, the mobile was charged, and Emmy 'called' their parents, which was actually the voice mail of a burner mobile Emmy had bought for that purpose. Then they had left, and Nick had gone crazy.

"What was with the comment about how hard it is growing up without magic?"

Emmy blinked at him in shock. She barely remembered, the comment, she had only said it so Erica could better relate to her, Emmy didn't see what the big fuss was about.

"So?"

That was apparently the wrong thing to say. "So? _So_? You've had magic your whole life, what would you know about growing up without it?" He ranted.

Emmy was grateful that no neighbors seemed to care or notice Nick's commotion, because it would have led to uncomfortable questions. Not that the git would stop for a second and consider the consequences for one second about having this argument out in public, instead of at the flat.

"It was part of the cover story," she tried explaining in a calm voice, still not getting what his deal was.

"You don't get it!" For once, Nick was right about something for once, Emmy didn't get it. "You have no idea what it's like, growing up and finding out magic is real, and not being a part of it. Alway's looking, never touching. For you it's all pretend, but for me it's real!"

Nick had issues with magic, Emmy knew that. She knew that he was torn between loving it and hating it. When they had first met, he would constantly be begging to see her do one spell, just one simple spell. Sometimes she would cave, and do a spell, enjoying the look of wonder on his face. Then, once done, his face would turn sour, critiquing the purpose of the spell and how Muggles could do it better. She secretly agreed that Muggles could do it better, but had gotten sick of Nick's mouth pretty quickly. A quick threat of turning him into a toad (not that she could, but Nick didn't know that), ended his requests.

"Are you PMSing or something? It was a _lie_, and you know I prefer Muggle means anyway."

"Whatever," he said, and rolled his eyes at her. "You're not one of us, it's insulting, so stop pretending to be something you're not." Then he had walked away in a huff toward a bus stop on the street corner.

Emmy had let him go, figuring he'd return to the flat the next day after he cooled down. Except he didn't, just sending a text that he would take care of the Muggle recruits on his own, without _her_ lies. She fought back the urge to text him what a stupid idea it was, visiting over 1,000 people across the United Kingdom would take forever. However, she realized that it wouldn't be the best move on her part, and probably push Nick further away.

Instead, she texted him with a plan of creating a recruiting tree. Erica would be sent a list of names of people in her area she could contact, and those interested could contact others, and so on. Meanwhile Nick could continue traveling, reaching out to Muggles in other parts of the country, who could go on to do the same. His response to her plan had been short: 'Fine'.

* * *

Perhaps, that was the real reason she had started her incidents with the Aurors. Not just to distract them, but to distract herself from what happened with Nick. They had fought before, but he had never exploded at her, not like he had that day. Apparently his issues with magic went deeper than Emmy originally thought.

During the next month, Ash never said anything, so Emmy hadn't said anything either about it, she didn't need Ash mad at her too. Nick kept in touch, sending texts and e-mails about where he was at, who he was about to see, who had expressed interest. His messages always read like reports, to the point and free of emotions. Emmy didn't know whether it was good or bad.

Then, in Mid-October, Nick had showed up at the flat. Ash seemed to be just as shocked as Emmy was, she hadn't expected to see him either.

Once inside, he had approached Emmy. "I'm sorry... about everything. I was having a bad week, and took it out on you."

"It's fine," smiled Emmy, "Everybody has those days. Now we can move onto training."

The rest of the day was spent hammering out the details, and acting like everything was back to normal, back to the old days. Nick was insulting the Ministry, Ash was smiling, and Emmy was in command.

But everything was not alright. On the inside, Emmy was glad Nick was back and acting like his usual self, but she was also hesitant. What would happen the next time Nick had a bad week? Would he explode again, remain calm... or worse?

* * *

"They're stalling," said Harry, as he looked over the latest reports regarding the Order. "But for what?"

"Stalling? Why do you call the thirty pizzas that were ordered by a Mr. Potter the other day and delivered to the Ministry? Doesn't seem like stalling to me," commented Seamus, who was seated across from Harry.

"Given the frequency and threat level, they're nothing but pranks, probably meant to distract us from the Order's real goal," said Hermione, who had just walked into the office where the Aurors were gathered.

"Pranks that have caused us to have more overtime this month than all of last year combined. Delancey's so exhausted he mistook me for Harry the other day," snorted Seamus.

"And we're still not any closer to finding out who their leader is, or their next actual target," moaned Hermione. The pile of books she had in arms landed with a loud thunk in front of Harry, who was still studying his reports. He had become so used to the sound over the years, he didn't flinch at the noise, unlike Seamus.

"Or why they bothered with the book," muttered Harry.

The visit to Hogwarts a month ago had initially been for Hermione's benefit, learning more about Muggle technology. Lila Hopkins, the Muggle Studies teacher seemed to know less than Hermione did, going on about how computers used mouses which needed to be fed cheese daily to keep their byte counts high. Hermione may not have known much about computers, but she was certain they didn't use live mouses. After leaving in a huff that day, she had promptly enrolled in several technical computer classes at a local university, designed to help the 'older generation' use today's technology. Between her family, dealing with the pranks from the order (that's how she viewed them, pranks, distractions from the bigger picture), and going to class, she had requested a time turner to manage everything. Without it, she doubted she would have had time to sleep.

Instead it had been Harry who had walked away the most valuable information, that Deputy Headmistress Aurora Sinestra had detected that somebody had been in her office, and had been interested in the magic quill and book that had the names of Hogwarts students listed in it. There was no proof that the Order was responsible, or how they had managed to infiltrate the castle without being detected, but it was something that Harry promised to investigate nonetheless.

So far he had only speculations. Perhaps the Order was planning on kidnapping or ransoming students back to their families. If that was the case, why not simply grab the students there, at Hogwarts? Or perhaps it was to have a master list of Hogwarts students, but for what means? Nobody had been able to provide Harry with a concrete answer, just like nobody had been able to provide him with concrete evidence that the Order was responsible, and not some mischievous students.

Just in case the Order did return to Hogwarts, he had taken the precaution of giving the Marauder's Map to Neville, to be on the look-out for names that didn't belong at the school. After all, it wasn't like Teddy would be using it anytime soon. James had thrown a fit at that revelation, believing that he was next in line for the map. In Harry's mind, it was the last thing he needed, especially in such a time as this.

Other than that and reinforcing the spells surrounding the castle, not much else could be done. Dementors were not an option, they had never worked anyway while Harry was in school, nearly performing the Dementor's Kiss on him once. The best the Ministry could really do, was to send Aurors to the school, but the Order wasn't to that level of a threat. Yet.

****Author's Note****

****Four reviews last chapter! I'd like to thank Son of Whitebeard, Mryna Maeve, noonface, and Wise Girl16 for reviewing. I will respond to signed reviews, so keep them coming!

This chapter was suppose to be training, it was. I was going to gloss over the Emmy/Nick thing, but realized I couldn't, that it would be better to explain it, and it took over the chapter. These last couple chapters have been more about the characters than the plot, and I'll be glad when training is over, and the overall plot is back on track. I think it was necessary for the character's to be more developed, but writing all of it is tiring.

Just to give you an idea of what to expect, next chapter is training, Louis will return, and other OC's will be introduced. The chapter after that is Emmy's next idea, and then the Holidays.

Thanks for reading, and if possible leave a review!


	11. Off to a Great Start

I do not own the rights to Harry Potter. If I did, the Railview Hotel would have returned at some point in the series, and the unnamed woman would have a name.

**Off to a Great Start**

Billy Swells, owner and manager of the Railview Hotel, couldn't believe his luck.

The Hotel had been struggling for some time, ever since Nancy, his wife and former owner of the Hotel died fifteen years ago. Despite the gloom and doom environment, Nancy had loved the place and put all her heart into it's upkeep. Her devotion was why Billy kept the place, even after her death. He couldn't sell the one thing she had loved so much, like the child they never had. There had been numerous offers over the years, specifically from the businessmen located in the nearby town of Cokeworth. Cokeworth itself wasn't much to talk about: dirty, polluted, and just plain depressing.

All that was changing though. The condition of the town had caught the attention of environmentalists who started to clean up the river, and were working on the town's new image. They had even gone as far as renaming the town Coke's Worth, as if it was some place with a proud history instead of a town with a horrible name. Billy had to give some credit to them, the town was a whole lot brighter and cleaner, and more pleasant, but now they were coming after Betty's place. The businessmen claimed that its tall walls and ominous presence was a blight on the new town, and should be taken down to make way for a new shopping center.

At first they had tried increasing the amount of the offer, saying it was way more than the place was worth. When that tactic failed, they had moved on from bribes to threats. The bank claimed to foreclose on the place, that Billy was behind on his bills. The electric bill, water bill, cable bill, the loan Billy had taken out to repair the leaky roof. While it was true Billy was behind, it was mainly due to the businessmen upping his rates on everything from electricity to food for the guests. It had turned into an all out war, with Billy vowing the only way the Railview Hotel would be taken from him, was when he was cold and dead in the ground. Even then, he planned on coming back as a ghost, haunting the land and disrupting any demolition equipment that came near Nancy's baby.

However, he was fighting a fool's war. Not only were his bills increasing, but the number of guests were decreasing. This was due to two things. The first being, the Hotel's namesake, the view of the nearby railroad. People today didn't want to stay in a place where a train was guaranteed to pass by every couple of hours. They wanted pools, spas, Wi-Fi, and all the latest luxury amenities that the Hotel didn't offer. The few that were willing to stay in such a Hotel, were scared off by the locals from Cokeworth (for that's what it still was to him; that's what he had called it for sixty some years, and no damn yuppies were going to change his mind). The locals would tell stories of rats, roaches, and criminals frequenting the place. Of ghosts and curses, following those who dared to visit. None of the stories were true, but the Hotel's decor certainly did nothing to stop the rumors. If anything, they helped.

Billy Swells had nearly given up on hope of keeping the Railview Hotel going for much longer. Then, out of the blue, he had received a phone call from some young sounding woman, requesting to rent out all the rooms for a month. At first Billy had thought it was a joke, and played along. Then people had started showing up, and Billy realized that it was no joke or prank, but was real.

What made things even better, was that the same group, claiming to be a youth organization, had also rented out Coke's Worth new civic center for a month. This meant that the same businessmen who harassed and chased his guests away, couldn't do anything without hurting themselves too.

He had a sneaking suspicion that there was more to the youth organization than met the eye, especially when a hooded figure had paid for everything. Over the years though, Billy had learned not to questions some things. Not to question the strange on-goings in Spinner's End, not to question the time when all those letters had shown up for some boy, and not to question some stranger who was saving his wife's baby. Some things, were best left alone.

* * *

Ashley Ames hated name tags. Her long blond hair was constantly getting stuck to the sticky side, causing her scalp pain whenever she turned her head. Five minutes after removing the hairs, they'd be right back attached to the tag. Tradition dictated the name tag to go on the upper left chest. That was fine and dandy, except the traditional location on Ashley's chest was far from flat (something she was rather proud of), causing the tag to curl up and away from her chest, making the hair problem ten times worse than it should be.

The name tag in question, had more than 'My name is: Ashley Ames' printed on it. Beneath the first line, was another which read, 'I'm a: Muggle!' exclamation point and all. The border of the tag was a red curvy design, designating her as a member of the Red team. There were three teams in total: Blue, Yellow, and Red.

Ashley surveyed her other red team members as she waited for whatever was about to start, to _start_; standing around in the lounge of a civic center wasn't that exciting. There were three other Muggles, and two Squibs. She didn't care much for the Squibs; both were women who were old enough to be her mother. Both were talking to a dark skinned man, about their age, whose name tag proclaimed him a Muggle named Gavin Thomas.

The two other members were Muggle boys around her age. The one looked to be like a punk, and reminded her of her wizard brother. The very thought of Marshall caused her nose to wrinkle up. He was banned from using magic in the summer, but that didn't stop him from pranking her with some Weasel products he had gotten. Making her tongue grow five feet long and change colors, causing her to whoop around the house like a monkey. She learned after a while to never trust anything her brother gave her, for fear it might be enchanted.

The other boy though, a Muggle named Daniel Rowe, was rather cute. Fluffy dark hair she wanted to run her fingers through, deep blue eyes she wanted to stare into longingly. He had been the one to mention the Order to her, and was the initial reason she was interested, the other being fed up with her brother turning her cat into a cushion for the tenth time, claiming it was 'homework'.

Despite her best efforts, he wasn't giving her the time of day. The only look she was getting was from some pale girl on the Yellow team, a Squib according to her name tag. She was giving Ashley the stink eye, and Ashley stuck out her tongue in turn.

Ashley had never been competitive before, but if she was on a team, then a competition of sorts must be about to begin, and she was going to do whatever it took to ensure Yellow's defeat and getting Daniel to notice her.

* * *

Balthazar Bagshot scowled. He, a member of the prestigious Bagshot family, was stuck with a bunch of hideous Muggles for teammates. When he had heard about the Order of Prometheus initially, he thought it was an excellent idea; ridding Squibs of the social stigma that was attached to the label. Nobody said anything about Muggles getting involved.

On the Yellow team were six people, four of which were Muggles. Balthazar tried not to pay attention to the four. Two boys, and two older women. The women had already tried to make conversation with him, but they got the message of his disinterest once he refused to recognize them. The boys were just as awful, insulting his wizard robes, calling him a girl. If he wasn't a Squib, he would transfigured them on the spot.

He was wearing traditional wizard robes made by Jacque Taileur, the finest robe maker in Europe. It took months to even book an appointment, and the majority of wizards couldn't afford his hourly fee, let alone the cost of the robes. The astronomical price was worth it though. They were cut to fit his body, and could grow or shrink if his body shape changed. Charmed to keep him cool in the summer, warm in the winter, and resistant to all stains and damage, they were truly the best robes one could ever want.

Not that those Muggle brats would ever know the luxury of wearing such robes. Such things were beyond their comprehension.

There was one member of his team, that might be able to share his appreciation for such fine craftsmanship. A fellow Squib named Leslie Moore. Balthazar couldn't recall the Moore name, probably some lesser family than the Bagshots. Lesser or not, Moore was still better company than those filthy Muggles. She was rather delicate looking, like a flower that would wilt at any moment. Probably due to the presence of Muggles no doubt. Her gaze was directed at some Muggle on the Red team.

"Filthy creatures, those Muggles," he whispered to her. He didn't know what the Muggle girl had done, but she most likely deserved Moore's withering glare.

He expected a derogatory comment along the same lines in return. Instead, she responded, "Well they could do with a good bath, I wouldn't go as far as calling them filthy. Unless there was something else you meant?"

Taken aback from the the reply, Balthazar blinked before deciding to defend his original point. "I do, in fact. While I applaud the efforts of the Order to increase respect of Squibs among the wizarding community, I do have to question their sanity involving Muggles."

"The only difference between Muggles and us, is that we were raised believing in magic, while they were raised believing it's fiction. What we and Muggles have in common though, is that both are underestimated and undervalued by the wizarding world. Which is why us, united with them, shall overtake the Ministry."

Balthazar admired her ambition and drive, but she seemed to be lacking understanding of where Muggles belonged. He had been all for Voldemort and his Death Eaters new regime, until they had murdered his beloved aunt Bathilda, just to capture Harry Potter. She had been the one member of his family to not treat him like a contagious disease once his status as a Squib was revealed. With her encouragement, he became a best selling author on wizard history, turning a dull subject into something exciting. There had been several embellishments in his books, but they were mostly true. Upon the first one becoming a best seller, she had bought him his first set of Taileur robes.

It was her death that changed his view on Voldemort and his regime, but he couldn't deny that he had the right idea about Muggles. Now he just had to get this Moore to come around to his line of thought.

* * *

Clark Swick, Muggle for the Blue team, had been trying to get a certain person's attention as well. At first it had been his brothers, Devin in the Red group, and Andrew in the Yellow. Both were having conversations with other guys, Devin with Daniel, the guy who got them interested in this Order thing, and Andrew with another Andrew. They were discovering that not only did they have the same first name, and initials, but they were also born on the same day, a year apart.

Trying to insert himself into the conversation didn't work, it only resulted in blank stares and awkwardness. His brothers ignoring him was starting to piss him off. Wasn't the part of joining this stupid Order thing? For them to work together, getting back at Bradley, their other brother who had the fortune of being born a wizard?

Clark was two years younger than Bradley, who was currently a twenty year-old rising writer at the Daily Prophet, winning awards for his 'honest journalism'. He, and his other brothers, blamed Bradley for their failures (wrongly so). Their lack of ambition, criminal records, distaste for authority, was all laid at Bradley's feet. Who could compete with a _wizard_ in the family? (What Clark and his brothers didn't realize, was that even if Bradley hadn't been born a wizard, they still would have made the same choices. This was due to the fact that Bradley was born with ambition, while they had been born with laziness.)

Not that Clark cared. Instead, he and his brothers stupidly believed that all their misfortunes resulted from their brother being a wizard. A wizard who didn't have the decency to lord it over them, acting like the superior being he was, but instead acting all caring and loving. Sending them care packages, using spells to fix whatever they had broken in a drunken stupor. It was disgusting. The least Bradley could do was admit that he as ruining their lives on purpose.

Since his brothers were busy doing other things, he turned his attention to his supposed team players. At first he had been ticked off that his brothers weren't in the same group as he was. Now, seeing them being all buddy-buddy with their team members, made him want to make a friend in his group, showing them he was fine without_ their_ company, that he didn't need them.

Off to his right, seated on a couch, were three members of his team. Some good looking black chick, a squirrely looking white one, and some old man. The old man was obviously out of the question, his presence just screamed 'stuck-up-authority-figure'. The squirrely chick wasn't that good looking, and her clothes were that of a teacher. If there was one thing Clark hated more than 'stuck-up-authority-figures' it was teachers. Always claiming that he wasn't living up to his potential, was going down a bad path, blah, blah, blah. The black chick was hot, but looked to be in her thirties, and was too friendly with the other two for Clark's taste.

Which left the other two members of his group. Some blonde who looked to be a couple years younger than him, and a guy about his age. They were in a corner talking, but the blonde didn't look too happy with the conversation. Clark couldn't make out what she was saying, but he knew that look. It was the look of a girl who was about to dump a boy. He couldn't blame him, who'd want to date a guy named Longbottom? Actually, what kind of a last name was Longbottom? It sounded like some gross condition.

Smiling to himself, he made his way over to the two. His brothers may have found new best friends in some guys, but he was about to become one with a girl. Actually, now that he was closer to her, she was rather kinda cute, not as good looking as the black chick, but way better than the squirrel.

Before he could come to her rescue though, something else did. A voice, over some speakers. All eighteen heads in the room looked up, taking in the message.

"All recruits proceed to the left door, all recruits proceed to the left door. The training process will begin once all recruits are in."

The blonde moved to the left door, along with the rest of the people in the room including Clark. Well, he could always impress her during the training process.

****Author's Note****

As usual, I'd like to thank Wise Girl16, Myrna Maeve, Son of Whitebeard, and LizziePixie-Aiko for reviews. Reviews are always nice to receive and I will respond to signed ones.

Also, Myrna Maeve asked about the Time-Turners since they were destroyed in the series. While they were destroyed, over twenties years have passed since then, making it likely that more have been made since. Due to the large stock of Time-Turners the Ministry possessed, I assumed that they can't be that hard to make, otherwise there would be very few of them.

Once again the main plot got sidetracked by character development and background. The first part was supposed to be a simple paragraph, until I got the oh-so-brilliant-idea to use the hotel the Dursleys stayed at in the first book. Then I looked it up on the HP wiki and discovered not much was said about it, other than it was owned by an unnamed woman, looked gloomy, and Harry got a bunch of letters there. The lack of information inspired the story of Nancy and Billy Swells, and the fight against the greedy businessmen from Cokeworth, which is canon. In fact, it's the location of where Lily and Petunia grew up, and Spinner's End.

From there, I wanted to show the three teams through the eyes of one member, setting up stuff for the next chapter, which will feature the beginning of the training.

Here's a list of the teams, members, and their statuses:

Blue Team: Clark Swick (Muggle), Macy Thomas (Muggle), Lila Hopkins (Squib), Oswalt Prewett (Squib), Kelly Langley (Muggle), Louis Longbottom (Squib).

Red Team: Ashley Ames (Muggle), Serena Sinistra (Squib), Devin Swick (Muggle), Daniel Rowe (Muggle), Gavin Thomas (Muggle), Esther Adams (Squib).

Yellow Team: Balthazar Bagshot (Squib), Leslie Moore (Squib) Susan Collins (Muggle), Andrew Stock (Muggle), Andrew Swick (Muggle), Erica Dewing (Muggle).

Some of the characters you've seen before, while others are relatives of canon characters. I tried to diversify ages, backgrounds, and reasons for joining the Order, and hopefully I succeeded.

Thanks for reading, and if possible leave a review!


	12. One for All, All for One

I do not own the rights to Harry Potter. If I did, the other books would be available on Pottermore by now.

**One for All, All for One**

Through the lounge's left door, a space just large enough for eighteen people was revealed. Behind the group was the wall that contained the door to the lounge. On the left and right sides were thick, black curtains, hung from floor to ceiling. This arrangement was done on purpose, corralling the group in the center of the space and preventing them from moving.

In front of the group, there was a prefabricated wall stretching from curtain to curtain. Spaced evenly along the walls were three doors. The far left one was painted a fire-engine red; the middle was painted a cobalt blue; and the far right one was painted a smiley-face yellow. At least, that was how Susan Collins would describe it.

Her deep thoughts regarding door colors was interrupted by the mysterious voice from earlier.

"The first part of your training is about to start. Before you are three doors, each one matching a team color and leading to another room. Once through the doors, you will face challenges that you will have to solve as a group. Only by solving the challenges by working together, will you be able to exit the room. Begin!"

The voice was gone, and eighteen people were suddenly charging their way to the doors. Caught up in the crowd, Susan had no choice but to go along with the crowd, hoping that she would somehow end up through the yellow door.

She didn't know if hope played a role, but she did end up through the yellow door, along with the other five members of her group. Out of them, she only knew Erica, a Muggle like her, since the two had chatted earlier and were uncomfortable with the other members of their team.

The only light source came from outside, and once all six members were inside, the door shut. A mixture of shrieks and groans escaped team members; to her embarrassment, Susan let out the loudest shriek. She could hear somebody jiggling the door knob, before stating the obvious of it being locked.

Yelling started to ensue. The door wasn't locked, the person just wasn't trying hard enough; maybe they were secretly on some candid camera show; or maybe they were about to be slaughtered by a serial killer. Susan tried not to dwell on the last suggestion, which was starting to seem like the most likely explanation.

People were shoving to get to the door, and Susan was pushed up with her back against the wall. Her attention changed from the serial killer line of thought to the sharp poke in her back. Susan managed to slip her right hand behind her back, feeling around for the source of her pain. before her hand eventually found something cold and metallic, that was also familiar.

A quick flip upward, and light flooded the room. All arguments ceased, while five pairs of eyes focused on Susan.

"Light switch," she explained.

Erica laughed. "Of course, the first thing you usually do when entering a dark room is feel around for a light switch."

The two Muggle boys mumbled something about how they knew that all along, while the other girl seemed disinterested, and the snotty looking guy seemed disgusted.

With the room filled with light, Susan could finally look around, while her team members seemed to be doing the same.

Light came from a series of lights strung up along a three meter tall ceiling. Knowing that she was still in the civic center which had a ceiling far greater than three meters, Susan could only conclude that she was currently in a prefabricated room.

On the left and right sides of the room were three huge, golden hoops. In the center of the room, between the three hoops on both sides was a table with queer looking balls on top. On the far end was another door, presumably the one they had to exit through. Above the door looked to be a scoreboard of some kind.

The snotty looking guy from earlier let out a low whistle at the sight. "It's a scaled down version of Quidditch."

"Quid- what?" asked Susan. The name sounded familiar, but she didn't know what it was from.

"Quidditch, think of it as the wizard version of football," explained Leslie.

"Except much better," added the snob.

"It's locked," cried the two boys, who had promptly walked over to the other door, trying to open the door.

The other girl, whose name was Leslie according to her name tag, rolled her eyes. "What part of challenge don't you understand? If it was simple as turning on some lights and walking over to a door, it wouldn't be much of a challenge."

"So now what?" asked Erica. Susan was wondering the same thing.

* * *

The Red team seemed to be just as stuck as the Yellow. Unlike the Yellow team, they discovered the light switch a few seconds upon entering the room.

When Ashley was younger, her brother had somehow managed to lock her in her closet, despite the door not actually having a lock on it. Her father had to resort to taking the closet door of its hinges before she was able to get out. Unfortunately, the light switch controlling the sole light-bulb which illuminated the closet was located outside. All those hours trapped in the dark had their effect, causing an intense fear of the dark ever since. Whenever Ashley entered an unknown, unlit location, her hands would automatically search for a light switch.

Not that she told any of her team members that. Instead she let them think she was just brilliant, hoping it would impress Daniel. To her delight, he gave her a quick smile of approval.

Once the lights were turned out, everybody was at a loss as for what to do. The two Squibs, Esther Adams and Serena Sinistra seemed to recognize the Quidditch set-up.

Ashley was looking to Daniel as for what to do next, when he let out a cry and rubbed the back of his head. Appearing over it was a funny brown looking ball that was obviously enchanted. As for its purpose, Ashley didn't know.

"A Bludger," said one of the women.

"I don't care what it is, I just want it to stop hitting me," commented Daniel.

"Use these," said the same women as earlier. She had gone over to the table at the other end of the room, bringing back two strange looking bats. "They're bats to beat the Bludgers with."

Daniel and Devin, eagerly grabbed the bats, and started to swat at the Bludger, along with another that had joined it in attacking Daniel. They then started to hit the Bludgers at each other.

"You're supposed to hit them at the opposing team," commented the other woman. With a glance at her name tag, Ashley learned her name was Serena, which meant that the other woman was Esther.

"There is no other team. 'Sides, this is more fun," said Devin.

"Actually, there is," said Gavin Thomas, the other Muggle in the group. His arm was outstretched and pointing to a red looking ball flying in the middle of the 'field'. It would go through one of the hoops on the right, circle around, and then repeat the process. Everything it would go through a hoop, the Visitor's Score on the scoreboard would increase by ten points. Currently the Visitor's Score was 70.

He went up to take it, only for his hand to go straight through it as if it didn't exist.

"Is it an illusion?" asked Esther.

Gavin shook his head. "What would be the point? None of us can do magic, so we can't counter it with another illusion." Then his eyes landed on an item on the table.

As he picked it up, Ashley could see it was a glove. Well, sort of a glove, just not like one she had ever seen before. It looked heavy, and had what appeared to be little green balls along the fingers and joints. Gavin put it on his right hand. Immediately, the red looking ball flew to his hand, and was nestled in the glove.

"It's not an illusion, it's a hologram," he said excitedly. "The glove must allow you to control the Quaffle."

"This isn't Quidditch!" cried Serena. "In Quidditch there are seven members per team, not six, there are brooms, and you don't control the Quaffle isn't a holothingy!"

"It is now," said Gavin, and winked cheekily at her.

She groaned, while Ashley spoke up. "So what are we suppose to do now?"

"Isn't it obvious?" answered Esther, who had a grin on her face that rivaled Gavin's. "We have to catch the Snitch!"

* * *

The Blue team had reached the same conclusion as the Yellow team did, a few minutes before. Which was why they were all running around like maniacs after the elusive golden Snitch, which was zipping madly through the air.

All but Oswalt, who had never been that much into Quidditch in the first place. Instead, he was experimenting with the glove that controlled the Quaffle. He would throw the Quaffle into one of his team's hoops. It would then zoom around the room, trying to avoid capture. It took Oswalt a couple tries, but he managed to figure out that if didn't go after it directly, but waited for it to come to him, he would have the most success at grabbing it. If Quidditch could be played like this, he might actually become a fan.

It was Louis who had figured everything out, after the Bludgers had started attacking people. Clark was having a blast hitting them at people, until his arms grew too sore to continue. Then he had started running around the room with the rest, trying to keep up with the blonde, Kelly.

Realizing that running blindly around the room wasn't the best tatic, Louis decided it was time to try something else.

"We need a net," he said. "We can't fly on brooms, so we need something with a long handle to catch the Snitch in."

"What about using one of the golden post things," said Macy who was referring to the Quidditch hoops. "We can tie the sleeves of my jacket around it for a net."

"A bit crude, but it'll work," said Louis. He then walked over to one of the hoops and started to pull on it, hoping to pull it out of the base that seemed to be keeping it in place.

"I"ll help," volunteered Kelly, who started to walk over to join him.

Deciding that he wasn't going to be left out, Clark brushed past her and said, "How about we leave it to the strong men?"

His comment didn't have the desire effect. He had been hoping Kelly would smile at him or admire his strength, but all she did was glare. Macy, and another woman named Lila joined her.

"Men," muttered Macy under her breath. The other two didn't say anything, but silently agreed on the sentiment.

After much tugging and grunting, the hoop was freed. Macy took off her jacket and attached it to the hoop.

Louis then started to run after the Snitch, trying to catch it. Several times the jacket came undone, and had to be reattached to the hoop. Finally, the idea worked, and the snitch was struggling against several layers of cotton before Louis's hand was around it.

Within seconds of his hand seizing the Snitch, the exit door opened up.

"Does this mean it's over?" asked Oswalt disappointingly. He had grown rather fond of his 'magic' glove that controlled the Quaffle.

"I think it is," replied Kelly. "But maybe if you ask nice enough, they'll let you keep it."

* * *

The Blue team was the first to emerge from their room. The Red team quickly followed, with the Yellow team finally emerging half an hour later. None looked happy.

With all teams finished, a voice came over the loudspeakers.

"It doesn't matter how highly skilled you are in a certain area if you can't work well with others. The purpose of this exercise was to show you that you needed all of your team members, be they Muggle or Squibs. Both groups have valuable knowledge, be it knowing how to play Quidditch, or how to turn on a light bulb. Neither could have succeeded without the other. When you see future members of the Order, do not think of them as Muggles or Squibs, but think of them as your fellow team members. That is all for today."

Within minutes, the civic center was nearly empty. Some people had gone back to their rooms, grumbling about how stupid training was and how they had better things to do with their time. Others had made friends in their team, and had plans to go out with them to grab a bite to eat.

Ten minutes later, only three people out of the eighteen remained, two girls and a boy.

****Author's Note****

I'd like to thank MoonBeam2254, Myrna Maeve, LizziePixie-Aiko, znerom, and Wise Girl16 for reviews. Thanks for all of your feedback and enthusiasm, and keep it coming.

Any guesses on who the three are? Next chapter some team evaluations are in order, along with Emmy's next plan.

As stated in this chapter, teamwork is important for a group or organization to function. Without it, nothing will get done. Given how all the characters have their own issues, it was very important for them to learn how to work together. Obviously, not all learned that lesson, or cared, but it is important for the ones who did.

Last chapter I mentioned that some characters are relatives of canon characters. One of the canon characters is Dean Thomas. Rowling was never able to include it in the books, but she has stated elsewhere that he has an interesting past. His father was a wizard who never told Dean's mother. He left them to protect them from the Death Eaters who wanted to recruit him, and was eventually murdered by them. Dean's mother married a Muggle, and he eventually had several half-siblings. Macy and Gavin are two of these siblings, and it has never been specified how many Dean had, their names, or their ages. For more information, you can look him up on the HP Wiki.

It's clear that Bathalazar is the nephew of Bathilda Bagshot, and Serena is Aurora's Sinistra's sister. I also forgot to mention it last chapter, but the European robe maker Jacque Taileur is my own character.

That's all for now. Thanks for reading, and if possible, leave a review!


	13. Evaluations

I do not own the rights to Harry Potter. If I did, there would be more books.

**Evaluations**

"What was that?"

Emmy, Nick, and Ash (formerly Kelly Langley, Daniel Rowe, and Leslie Moore respectively) were all seated in the civic center's lounge. They were evaluating the Order's new recruits, along with the training exercise.

"What was what?" asked Emmy innocently.

Ash stared at Emmy, while Nick tried to conceal the smirk on his face.

"Really? You're going to act like you don't know what I'm talking about? How unorganized everything was?"

Emmy objected. "It wasn't unorganized."

Ash let out a loud snort.

"Let's start with the beginning. You crammed a bunch of people into a small space then forced them to go into a dark room. The light switch idea was good, but it was also potentially dangerous. Out of the three groups, only one had the sense to look for a light switch, the others were just accidents. Then they weren't any clear instructions, just 'open the door'. You were counting on the Squibs to understand the Quidditch correlation that once the Snitch was caught the game ends, so therefore the training would end and the door would open. Also you missed the major point that Quidditch is played on brooms in the air, not running around on the ground."

Before Emmy could respond, Nick picked up. "And the glove? It's one thing when you push your little pet projects on us, but it's another thing when you use the recruits as guinea pigs."

"They weren't guinea pigs, and besides, Oswalt seemed fond of it," Emmy replied.

"The only one out of the fifteen recruits. My team only used it to try to catch the Snitch. When that failed, they used the bats to try to corner it and smash it to pieces," said Ash.

"Is that why it took you guys so long to get out?" asked Nick and she nodded. "As for my group, only Gavin seemed interested in it, but quickly lost it once he realized we had to catch the Snitch."

"Okay," admitted Emmy, "It could have been better planned. Happy? I'm not perfect, and next time it'll be better organized. We're limited as to what we can do since Muggles and Squibs can't do magic, and the whole idea was for them to realize that they need each other. Any specific suggestions for improvements?"

"Just because we can't do magic, doesn't mean we don't know spells," replied Ash. "We don't find out we're Squibs until our eleventh birthday, and every day up till then our parents teach us the basic spells they use everyday. So while flicking a wand and saying words won't produce the desired result, I do know some spells."

"Yeah," agreed Nick. "I know you can't include dangerous stuff like dragons, but I read my brother's books on wizard plants and magical creatures. Some of that stuff was tame enough for Muggles to deal with, without magic. And was me getting hit by the Bludger constantly really necessary? It's going to take weeks for the bruises to heal."

"Yes, yes it was. Now, your suggestions are noted and under consideration. Now onto evaluation the recruits."

Glad that her critique was finished, she passed out tablets to Ash and Nick. On them contained files on all the recruits in alphabetical order, along with the footage from training. Emmy couldn't stand evaluating herself, let alone other people doing it, so she was grateful for the distraction. The last thing she needed was Nick and Ash pointing out all of her flaws and doubting her leadership.

She brought up the first recruit on her tablet and began the evaluation. "Esther Adams, Squib, member of the Red Team. She runs her own restaurant and catering company, is married and has three children."

Emmy turned her attention to Nick. "She was on your team. Any comments?"

Nick shrugged. "She was alright, figured out the deal with the Bludgers and bats. Gavin and her teamed up to get the Snitch. Somehow they managed to corner it with the table, and the rest of us gathered round till it finally flew into somebody's hand."

"So Leader, Spy, Fighter, or Other?" asked Emmy.

"She has the potential to be a Leader, but probably not the time with the business and kids," answered Nick.

Emmy tapped her finger to her chin thoughtfully.

"Hmm... Well, she does seem to be in charge at that Squib neighborhood, she could be a central contact between the Order and recruits. Her catering business might be able to get into some VIP places we could take advantage of later. Spy it is. Let's see... the classes she'll take tomorrow are Acting, Information Gathering, and Intermediate Muggle Technology. She's lived long enough in the Muggle world to know the basics, so Intermediate should be fine. Who's next?"

"Ashley Ames," sneered Ash. "Muggle and member of the Red Team."

"You just didn't like her because she was flirting with Nick," smirked Emmy as a blush spread its way across Ash's pale face.

Nick meanwhile stared at his shoes as if they had suddenly grown wings. "She was okay, found the light switch on purpose and wasn't completely useless."

Emmy laughed at his evaluation, while Ash rolled her eyes and said, "Let her go."

"Just because you don't like her doesn't mean that we should let her go. If Nick wasn't so busy pretending he wasn't into you and messing around with the Swick brother, her flirting might have actually worked."

"I wasn't messing around with the Swick brother," muttered Nick.

"Notice how he says nothing about pretending not to be into you," said Emmy with a smile. "Now, as I was saying, she could have succeeded. Her brother is a seventh year Slytherin and has the typical mean Slytherin reputation which he probably brought home with him. He's already been recruited to start as a Hit Wizard next fall. She probably has a thirst for some long overdue revenge on her brother, and with the proper classes she could go far. So for our new Spy, she'll take Acting, Information Gathering, and Introduction to the Magical World. Ash, don't give me that look. If she doesn't do well tomorrow she'll get the boot, but until then give her a chance. Next?"

"Balthazar Bagshot," answered Ash, this time with a look of disgust on her face. She held more contempt for him than she had for Ashley. "Squib, member of the Yellow Team, doesn't shut up about his pureblood lineage. Supposedly inherited his talent for writing from his aunt, but his books contain more fiction that fact. He's pretty much this generation's Lockhart sans the memory charms. The whole entire time he kept whispering to me about how much better we were than those 'filthy mudbloods'. Get rid of him."

"Now Ash," began Emmy, "Have you learned nothing from Ashley? Just because you don't like somebody doesn't mean you should get rid of them. In this case he does have something that could be of value to us and the money we stole from Gringotts can only take us so far. The robes he was wearing were Taileur and would cost most families a year's salary. No training for him tomorrow, he'll be an Other. Instead he'll be sent home with a note saying that his talents are needed elsewhere."

Ash's face lit up once she realized what Emmy was implying. "I might actually be able to stand his company for a couple hours if it meant emptying his bank vault."

"See! Always look on the brighter side of things. Susan Collins is next, how was she Ash?"

"The only time she made any noise was when she screamed in the beginning. The rest of the time she didn't do much. According to her file both of her siblings are magical. The sister works at St. Mungo's as a Healer and the brother works abroad for Gringotts. Nothing too much there," replied Ash. "I can't see her being of much use, the only reason she joined was because she was 'bored' with her life and wanted some excitement."

"True, but also according to her file she's a graphic designer and works at a major London publishing firm... She'll be an Other. No training for her tomorrow, but I do have a job for her."

"Care to share with the rest of us?" Nick had been quiet for a while since the last two recruits had been in Ash's group and he didn't have any input. However, he was curious about what Emmy was planning next.

"Maybe... depends on how well tomorrow goes. Next up is Erica Dewing, the Muggle lawyer Nick and I met with, who was also on Ash's team."

"Leader. At first she was clueless, but once the Quidditch thing was explained, she took charge." Ash tilted her head thoughtfully and added, "Has a wicked arm too. Considering how she went after the Snitch with the bat, she could also be a Fighter."

Nick smiled. "Her sister is a Beater for the Holyhead Harpies, must run in the family even if magic doesn't."

"Perhaps Leader would be best. Also, a Lawyer could definitely be handy in the future, even a Muggle one. Sign her up for Leadership Development, Introduction to the Magical World with a focus on the Wizengamot, and perhaps Combat to hone her attack skills just in case," said Emmy. "Lila Hopkins is next, and we already have her as a Spy. Acting, Information Gathering, and Intermediate Muggle Technology. That should work out well since her and Esther are friends already."

"Look Emmy, your boyfriend is next," teased Ash, eager to get back at Emmy's comments from earlier.

Emmy sighed and continued with her evaluation. "Louis Longbottom wasn't that bad, especially once training began. He was actually quite pleasant toward the end. Definitely Leader material, so he'll be taking Leadership Development. Ash, you said that he knew what he was talking about at the party? Well then, Advanced Muggle Technology for him, along with Intermediate Muggle Studies."

A grin appeared on Nick's face once he saw who was next. This time it was his turn to tease Emmy. "Hey, it's your biggest fan, Emmy. Perhaps he'll be lucky enough to have you sign his glove for him."

Emmy stuck her tongue out at him. "Oswalt Prewett has good taste and is a sweet little old man." Ash made a face at the 'sweet little old man' assessment, but Emmy ignored her. "His daughter Mafalda is a rising star in the Ministry, and he's related to the Weasleys by being Molly's cousin... You know, when one gets older in age, they start having regrets, particularly those concerning family. Maybe it's time for a family reunion."

Nick looked doubtful. "You're really going to send in a frail old man to a house full of Weasleys and potentially Potters? Won't they find that odd, especially if he hasn't spoken that side of the family in years?"

"Not to mention they can't stand his daughter," added Ash. "Nobody can stand that girl."

"If it goes badly the first time, we'll pull him out. Right now he's the only one who can get us close enough to the Weasleys and Potters on a regular basis. The Weasleys and Potters don't visit Hogwarts often enough for Lila to spy on, but a lonely, doddering old man with regrets could get by with regular visits. To pull it off, Oswalt will need to take Acting, Information Gathering, and maybe Intermediate Muggle Technology. He's lived with Muggles for most of his life, but he might not know as much about technology as I want him to."

"Serena Sinistra is next," said Nick. "The other Squib in my group. A bit snotty, not as bad as Balthazar though."

"Nobody can be as bad as Balthazar," commented Ash. "She couldn't have been too bad, I did see her leaving with that Thomas guy and he's a Muggle."

"She could be a Leader, but her sister is Deputy Headmistress of Hogwarts. Serena could probably get closer to her than Lila ever could."

"Good idea, Nick. It'd be nice to get another set of eyes and ears in there. That way if Hogwarts increases their security we'll have two sources to confirm accuracy. Acting, Information Gathering, and Introduction to Muggle Studies for her," said Emmy. Her brow furrowed at the next four names. "Andrew Stock and the three Swick brothers."

"Why are you lumping them all together?" asked Nick.

"Because they're all idiots," supplied Ash, and Emmy nodded in agreement.

"They're not idiots... just enthusiastic," said Nick defending them.

"You didn't have two of them in your group," responded Ash. "All the morons could talk about was how they had the same first name and initials. They were useless."

"Not to mention losers," added Emmy. "All three Swick brothers blame their brother Bradley for their failures in life. They're nothing but a bunch of juvenile delinquents."

"They're not that bad. Sure they're not as smart as you or Ash, but they still have potential, they could be Fighters."

Sensing that maybe Nick secretly needed some guy friends to hang out with, regardless of them being neanderthals, Emmy sighed. "Fine. All four are Fighters, and you're responsible for them. One screw up, and it's on your head. Tomorrow they'll take Introduction to the Magical World, Defense Against Spells, and Combat."

"Thanks Emmy, you won't regret giving them a chance."

Internally, Emmy hoped that Nick hadn't just cursed her. Externally she read off the last two names. "Gavin and Macy Thomas. Muggle siblings of Dean Thomas, famous for fighting alongside Harry Potter and friends in the Battle of Hogwarts. Currently employed as the Defense against the Dark Arts instructor as Hogwarts and is head of the Dueling Club."

"I don't think we need two more spies for Hogwarts," said Nick. "Him and Esther were pretty much the leaders of the Red Team."

"And since we didn't make Esther a Leader, we'll make Gavin one," approved Emmy. "Leadership Development for him, along with Introduction to the Magical World, and let's have him teach Introduction to the Muggle World and her to teach Introduction to the Magical World. That way he and Serena can get closer."

Ash rolled her eyes. "Since when are we match makers?"

"Since now," answered Emmy as a slow Cheshire Cat-like grin spread across her face. "Besides, imagine how Dean will react upon finding out his brother is seeing his boss's sister. Flitwick may be Headmaster, but Dean most likely reports to Sinestra, and that should make for awkward conversations."

"You scare me sometimes, Emmy. Especially when you're plotting," commented Nick.

"But plotting is so much fun," she responded. "And I haven't gotten to do much as I wanted recently. As for Macy, she was in the army, and now works for Scotland Yard. Looks like we found our Combat instructor. She just needs Defense Against Spells and Introduction to the Magical World."

"And we're finally done!" said Nick as he pumped his arm into the air. "Finally some time to relax and have fun."

"Don't you mean done for now?" said Ash. "This is just the first batch of recruits. We still have over three hundred more to go."

Ash and Emmy didn't even bother to contain their laughter at Nick's reaction, a very loud groan.

****Author's Note****

I apologize for this update being posted so late. I was nearly done with typing the chapter when I pressed the wrong keys, causing the screen to go back a page, instead of backspacing and deleting some words. Since I of course didn't save my progress, I had to retype everything. Hopefully the update was worth the wait.

Moving on. I'd like to thank Moixx, znerom, and LizziePixie-Aiko for reviews. Reviews help my writing process be they good or bad. Moixx, was there enough Ash and Nick in here for you?

As znerom pointed out in his last review, the training was a bit unorganized. The beginning of this chapter showed why. So far Emmy's plans have an excellent record, and it was time for her ego to get in the way. It also shows that she has other hobbies besides the Order. There was a lot of dialogue this chapter, but it was the best to get the evaluating done. Next chapter there should be less.

One last note is about Dean Thomas. It's never been confirmed as to what he goes on to do, but I've read couple fics where he's the teacher for Defense Against the Dark Arts. I liked the idea since he seemed like a natural fit and decided to include it.

Thanks for reading the update, and if possible, please leave a review!


	14. Classes

I do not own the rights to Harry Potter. If I did, the Order of the Phoenix would have been a much longer movie, matching the length of the book.

**Classes**

The next day of training went much better than the first. The day was divided into three sessions, with ten minutes in between allowing for breaks, and set-up of the next session. Session I began at nine and ran until eleven. Then there was an hour break for lunch, until Session II began promptly at one, and ended at three. Session III then began at ten after three, and ran until ten after five. Once all of the sessions were finished, the recruits were free to stay another night before departing the next day, or leaving right afterward. The night before, all recruits received messages containing their class schedule for the next day.

All classes were located at the civic center, in either the conference rooms, or designated areas of the main area, where training had occurred the day before. The first session consisted of two classes, Introduction to the Magical World, and a combination of Intermediate and Advanced Muggle Technology.

For the first class, Introduction to the Magical World, there were officially eight recruits in attendance, with a couple of additions. While Serena was a recruit herself, she had received a message the night before that she would be teaching the class. A chalkboard would be provided, and several history of magic books were sent along with the note, with instructions that she had two hours to teach the basics about what she felt Muggles should know about the wizarding world.

It was her first time teaching, but with a teacher for a sister, she had picked up a couple things. Like, to always speak in a calm, stern voice, even when there were students goofing off. The best way to stop them was to either shock them with facts that they found interesting, or embarrass them in front of the class. She opted for the latter. Once she managed to make fools of the four boys by asking them to name the four Hogwart's Houses. Every other Muggle in the room knew even that from their siblings, and snickered when the four failed to answer. After that, they kept their shenanigans to a minimum that was much less distracting.

Nick decided to resume his Daniel Rowe identity and attend the class as well. It'd give him a chance to keep an eye on the 'four idiots' as Emmy had dubbed them, and would also allow for some bonding time. By the end of it, he was quite surprised that he actually learned some things, even with the four goofing off next to him.

He had thought he knew everything there was to know about the magical world, thanks to Emmy and Ash, but he was wrong. While they had explained the basics to him, they had never explained the history behind them. Nick had never bothered to ask about the history, but now he wished he had. The reason why the Statue of Secrecy was put into place, why Hogwarts was established, why Diagon Alley was the way it was. Serena gave brief overviews of all, but it was still more in depth than Emmy and Ash had ever gone. He supposed that could be due to the fact that they take everything they had grown up with for granted, never realizing just how much Nick didn't know.

The second class of the first session, the combination of Intermediate and Advanced Muggle Technology, had been combined due to the small class size of just four recruits between them. It was taught by Emmy, who couldn't bear the thought of somebody else teaching a subject so dear to her, for they were surely to screw it up. She was surprised to learn that both Esther and Oswalt knew more than she thought they did. Meanwhile, Louis wasn't as proficient as he made himself out to be at the party where he first met Ash, and Lila was right where Emmy thought she might be.

In the area that had been sectioned off for the class, Emmy had arranged for five computers to be set up in advance, along with several mobiles, and a few breadboards in case her students were far more advanced than she originally thought.

As for the curriculum, she spent time teaching Louis and Lila about computers, how to send e-mails, and how to use mobiles to send messages or pictures. Since Oswalt and Esther were past that level, she spent time with them showing better ways to utilize computers and mobiles by using them together, along with some programming basics.

The class went rather smooth, except for the beginning. Knowing that she was a Muggle and not a Squib, all four were confused as to why she, a teenager, was there. When she explained that she got a message last night with instructions that she was to teach the class, they gave her strange looks until she further explained that she was extremely proficient with technology, and demonstrated what she could do on a computer. Once she demonstrated that she knew much more than all of them, they were more than content to sit back and learn, and disregard her young age.

* * *

For Session II, there were three classes. The first was Combat which was taught by Macy Thomas.

While Nick had joined the class to stay with the Swick brothers and Stock, Emmy and Ash both resumed their fake identities as Kelly Langley and Leslie Moore respectively, to join the class as well. Since Ash was a Squib, she was eager to learn techniques that she could defend herself with, that didn't require magic. She may have known how to defend herself from spells and magic, but she didn't know how to defend herself against Muggles who used fists and guns for weapons instead of wands. In addition, she might also learn techniques that would allow her to attack and disarm wizards, which would certainly prove useful. Emmy was taking the class for the same reasons as Ash, along with the urge to keep a closer eye on the 'four idiots' and to see how they interacted with Nick.

With two hours to teach, and only a night to prepare, Macy couldn't teach them everything she had learned, but she could teach them some basic moves such as how break out of a hold, and the sensitive areas to hit if an opponent was too close for comfort. She also improvised some, instructing them how to take down a wizard. Since most were completely dependent on their wands for magic, it was important to quickly disarm them, and take away their ability to breath. No breath, no ability to state spells. Some wizards were capable of non-verbal spells or apparating away, but Macy hoped that by using the element of surprise, the wizards would be too shocked to actually think of anything to do.

The second class was Introduction to Muggle Studies, and Intermediate Muggle Studies. It was a rather small class, with just two students, Louis and Serena. They were the only two of the Squibs present who hadn't been exposed fully to the Muggle World. The rest had either been living among Muggles, or teaching the subject. Gavin Thomas, Macy's brother, taught the class.

He started with dispelling all the myths Serena heard about Muggles, and how to properly pronounce words like 'electricity', 'telephone', and 'television'. From there he moved onto how Muggles used to live before the Industrial Revolution, to how it led to new inventions and technology, to the present day way of life. He also took the opportunity to point out how badly wizards failed when they attempted to dress as Muggles, usually calling more attention to themselves than if they simply dressed in their regular clothes.

The third class was Information Gathering. The teacher for that class, and Acting which would be during Session III, was a white-collar conman by the name of John Smith. The name was fake of course, but his experience wasn't. Emmy knew that she was taking a chance by bringing in a Muggle who knew nothing of magic, but he was the only one she knew of who had the knowledge she wanted the recruits to know. How to adapt easily to situations, how to read people, how to gain their trust and confidence to get what you wanted.

Emmy had discovered him about a year ago, when one of her flat neighbors had been concerned about her daughter giving money to some good looking young man she met on the internet. The neighbor, Eunice Yates, had always been nice to Emmy, bringing her treats and inviting her over for biscuits and tea. With a little digging, Emmy had discovered John Smith's true identity and his criminal history. She then sent him a very polite, but firm, e-mail that he should leave Mrs. Yates' daughter alone and to pay back the money she gave him, and in return his current whereabouts would not be disclosed to the authorities. He did the smart thing and complied with the request, before disappearing.

However, he couldn't completely disappear from Emmy. Remembering what a smooth talking criminal he could be, she hired him to teach his skills. Of course, she hid her identity so he wouldn't realize she was the one who threatened him the year before. She also didn't mention magic, or any particular reason why she wanted his skills taught. A nice sum of cash (half paid before Session II started, half paid after Session III ended), cleared up any questions he might have, and encouraged him to do his best. The recruits themselves were told before hand, that he was an 'outside consultant' who knew nothing about magic, and therefore they shouldn't mention it in his presence.

Realizing that there was a very strong likelihood of something going wrong, Emmy had seen to it that Esther Adams receive a bag containing a taser, duct-tape, and rope. She was then instructed that if things got out of hand, or if he started asking too many questions, she was to taser and restrain him. Emmy choose Esther since she was in both of his classes, could realize the potential danger of a Muggle criminal discovering magic, and was the most competent of the recruits in the class.

* * *

Session III also had three classes. The first, Acting, was taught by the same John Smith that taught Information Gathering. Fortunately, both classes occurred without incidents. The recruits learned how to get information from people without being suspected, and John Smith got a nice sum of money and a ticket to the Bahamas, and vowed to not dwell on the strange circumstances leading to his retirement.

The second class was Leadership Development, and consisted of Erica, Louis, and Gavin, the three that had been earmarked to be Leaders. Similar to the Acting and Information Gathering classes, an outsider, Kevin Grant, was brought in to teach the class. What was different was the fact that the outsider was a professional speaker who taught Leadership Development courses at universities and for companies. As far as he knew, it was just another weekend working teaching people how to work together, how to delegate, and how to lead an organization to meet its goals.

Emmy was tempted to sit in, but decided against it since the three would be working together in the future, and her absence might be suspicious. Besides, she could always watch the footage later. Instead she joined Nick for the last class, Defense Against Spells, which Ash was teaching.

Ash couldn't do any spells, but Emmy calculated it was too great of a risk to bring in a wizard to their small group. It'd be too complicated to explain why he/she was needed to cast spells at a bunch of Squibs and Muggles. Emmy was definitely out of the question, since her cover was that of a Muggle. So instead, it was up to Ash, who used a red laser pointer for a wand, to demonstrate when a spell 'hit' somebody.

She started with the basics, explaining the common the spells and curses that most wizards would use in a fight. Besides learning to avoid spells, several Weasley products such as Shield Clothing, Decoy Detonators, and Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder, and how to use them. Ash even had Macy review Combat techniques on how to disarm wizards.

Overall, Emmy, Nick, and Ash were in a much better mood at the end of the day than the day before.

* * *

To celebrate the end of the weekend and training, the trio had gone to a local restaurant.

"So, Ash," said Emmy sweetly as possible as she cut her steak, "What did you think of today?"

"Calmer and better organized," responded Ash, knowing that Emmy was fishing for compliments. "It was even a little fun too."

Nick rolled his eyes. "You and Emmy had way too much fun disarming the Swick brothers during Combat."

Both girls shrugged, and then Ash spoke. "I can't help it that I gain satisfaction from their pain."

"Yeah," said Emmy. "Not our fault."

Ash took a sip of her lemonade then said, "You know, even having recruits teaching the classes went alright, in addition to bringing in the outside consultants."

Emmy swallowed her food nervously. She did tell Ash and Nick she was bringing in professional outsiders. What she hadn't told them was Smith's profession was in, the taser back-up idea, or the money she paid him. Unsure of their reaction, she thought it best just to not mention those little details.

Steering the conversation away from the outsiders she asked, "Ash, feeling up to visiting Bagshot sometime soon and seeing about a donation?"

"Why?" asked Nick. "If we're after his money, wouldn't it just be easier to break into his vault at Gringotts? The tunnels still haven't been discovered."

"True, but when he gives the money willingly, it'll make him feel like he's important to the Order. That's not what this visit will be about, though. I need you to talk to him about his publishing contacts."

A puzzled look appeared on Ash's and Nick's faces. "His publishing contacts?" she asked. "Why do you need them?"

An all too familiar grin appeared on Emmy's face. "I have Susan Collins for the Muggle publisher, but I need a wizard one. They're going to print the Order's Manifesto."

****Author's Note****

Thanks goes to pfft (I'm glad you liked the use of Grunnings Drill, I'm sure Vernon would have approved), Son of Whitebeared, AwkwardedOut, Lizzie-Pixie Aiko, and znerom. Reviews are always nice to receive, and I will respond to signed reviews.

This is the last chapter covering training, next chapter will deal with Emmy's next plan, a Manifesto detailing the Order's actual goals. So far they've been pretty vague about what their plans are, other than 'taking down the Ministry'.

For those curious, here is a complete list of classes and the recruits in each:

Session I:

Introduction to the Magical World: Ashley Ames, Erica Dewing, Andrew Stock, Andrew Swick, Clark Swick, Devin Swick, Gavin Thomas, Macy Thomas, Daniel Rowe (Nick) taught by Serena Sinistra.

Intermediate and Advanced Muggle Technology: Esther Adams, Oswalt Prewett, Louis Longbottom, Lila Hopkins, taught by Kelly Langley (Emmy).

Session II:

Combat: Erica Dewing, Andrew Stock, Andrew Swick, Clark Swick, Devin Swick, Kelly Langley (Emmy), Daniel Rowe (Nick), Leslie Moore (Ash), taught by Macy Thomas.

Introduction to Muggle Studies and Intermediate Muggle Studies: Louis Longbottom, Serena Sinistra, taught by Gavin Thomas.

Information Gathering: Esther Adams, Ashley Ames, Lila Hopkins, Oswalt Prewett, taught by John Smith.

Session III:

Acting: Esther Adams, Ashley Ames, Lila Hopkins, Oswalt Prewett, Serena Sinistra, taught by John Smith.

Leadership Development: Erica Dewing, Louis Longbottom, Gavin Thomas, taught by Kevin Grant.

Defense Against Spells: Andrew Stock, Andrew Swick, Clark Swick, Devin Swick, Macy Thomas, Kelly Langley (Emmy), Daniel Rowe (Nick), taught by Leslie Moore (Ash).

That's all for this week's update, thanks for reading, and if possible read a review!


	15. Holidays and Happiness

I don't own the rights to Harry Potter. If I did, Peeves would have been in the movies.

**Holidays and Happiness**

Being late October, the trees in Bushy Park were mostly bare of leaves. The air was very chilly, not cold enough to see one's breath, but enough to make a person think twice before venturing outside. The grey clouds overhead added to the bleak mood, increasing the urge to seek warmth and comfort inside rather than out.

Which is why it was the perfect area to gather for a secret meeting. Away from the prying eyes of the public, and cameras which could be focused in on the two bundled up figures beside Heron Lake.

"You want me to do what?" asked one.

"I need you to go to Coke's Worth for a couple days."

"You do understand that I'm a geek, a techie, right? My place is in front of a computer in a cubicle. Not out in the field doing... stuff. This itself counts as my outing for the month," the one whined.

His companion merely sighed. "Darren, we've been over this, the less people who know about Operation Zeus the better."

"But Harry, the Order already knows about me. Wouldn't my prescence there practically scream, 'We're on to you'?"

"Not if you take the Polyjuice Potion."

"Polyjuice Potion? Isn't that the one that makes you look like someone else?" asked Darren.

"Yes it is," responded Harry. "You'll need to take it every hour, and you'll only have enough for three days."

"Uh-huh. And who am I suppose to be exactly?"

"A Muggle named Gary Ross. He's in his early fifties, and used to live in the area with his family before moving to America in the '90's. He's decided to visit the area for three days to see how much the town has changed over the decades."

"How nice," replied Darren sarcastically. "I suppose this means I have to do some researching about the town from that time? In addition to everything else you want me to do?"

"If you want to be believable, yes. Since the Railway Hotel is booked up for a month, you'll be staying at the Water Lily Hotel. During those three days, you need to discretely interview Billy Swells, the owner of the Railway Hotel, along with people at the civic center. You also need to set up a surveillance system around both locations so we can monitor them remotely for the next month."

"Which is the real reason you need me to go then."

"Yes, unless you're okay with somebody else..."

"No, no," said Darren as he held up his hand in Harry's face. "I'll just have to redo their work anyway. Might as well get a paid vacation out of it."

"This bag contains Ross's biography, your travel information, and a flask containing the potion," said Harry as he handed him a brown leather bag.

Darren started to rummage through it, and pulled out Ross's file. "Wait, he's real?"

Harry laughed. "Where did you think we got the hair for the potion from?"

"Um... magic? I'm a Squib, the most I was ever taught about potion making was to never touch a hot cauldron, and to never drink something if I didn't know what it was... or if my brothers gave it to me."

"The Polyjuice Potion requires a hair from the person you wish to be, and Ross was kind enough to donate his."

A disgusted look appeared on Darren's face, causing Harry to laugh once more. "Ah... now I wish you hadn't told me. Do you have any idea how awful it'll be drinking something knowing somebody's hair in it? I can't even eat food with my own hair in it."

"I've done it before, and you'll be fine," replied Harry with a smile.

"Hmmm..."

"Did I mention you'll be paid for the three days you're there? And you'll be reimbursed for all your expenses?"

"Now see, you should have led with that."

"I'll keep that in mind next time.

* * *

After three days in Coke's Worth, Darren was ready to go home. As well as ask for a pay raise.

The first day, a Thursday, was spent with Billy Swells, reminiscing about the Railway Hotel's glory days. Though, from what Darren's research had revealed, the Hotel didn't have any glory days. However, he nodded and smiled as Billy rambled on and on about his wife's baby and how the town had gone down hill since his wife's death.

Eventually he apologized for not having any rooms available for Darren, or as Billy knew him, Gary, to stay in. That comment was a nice little gateway to asking all the questions Harry wanted him to ask discretely.

Billy revealed that a mysterious stranger had called asking to rent out the Hotel for a month, which he had thought was a joke at the time. Then the mysterious stranger had actually shown up in person, appearance hidden by a hooded cloak, and paid in cash. Billy wouldn't stop rambling on about what a savior the mysterious stranger was until Darren asked if he had any photos. He was more than delighted to go up to the attic and dig out some albums.

Darren took advantage of his absence by then going through his files, and printing out a list of the names of the guests that the mysterious stranger had sent Billy. Darren then spent the next two hours looking over old photos and cursing Voldermort for not successfully killing Harry Potter. No doubt his parents would have been killed in Voldermort's new world order, but he was pretty sure not existing was better than going through the torture he was now experiencing.

Finally, Thank Merlin, Billy's bladder needed to be relieved and Darren was able to escape from the Hotel. Deciding that he had done plenty of work for the day, he unwound by having a marathon of Dr. Who episodes, having been introduced to the series by his college roommate.

The first part of the second day, Friday, was spent at the civic center, inquiring about the cost to host a family reunion. The cute girl he was talking to was more than happy to gossip about the mysterious stranger who paid in cash to rent the center for an entire month. She was much more pleasant to talk (not to mention better looking) than Billy had been, and Darren made a mental note to ask her out when he would no longer come off as a creepy old man. Such was the downfalls of the Polyjuice Potion.

The rest of the day was spent gaining access to the town's security camera system, part of their 'clean-up the town' movement. Some businessmen had decided that by wiring the town with cameras, would-be criminals might think twice about committing crimes. Darren had no idea how much of a deterrent it actually was, but he was grateful that the town had been so nice to install cameras in key locations for him, saving him the trouble of doing so. All he had to do was hack into their feed, which wasn't that secure, and reroute it to office. That way he could monitor the coming and goings of the Railway Hotel and Coke's Worth Civic Center all from the comfort of his desk chair, in the office he belonged in.

Since Harry had given him three days in the town, he decided to spend the last day, Saturday, doing what he was alias was suppose to be doing- seeing the sights, reminiscing about the old days. Well, maybe not so much reminiscing as relaxation. While he was eager to get back to his babies at his office, he couldn't stand the thought of giving up a day of his mini-holiday that his boss was paying for. He stopped by Ross's old home to see where he once lived, stopped by the city museum, and visited the downtown area which was full of local shops and restaurants. One was a small cafe which had the best tea he had ever tasted.

Sitting in a corner booth, he observed the people around him. There was the family in the corner; the parents trying to keep control of the three kids that reminded Darren of him and his brothers when he was younger. Then there was some young couple together. Darren couldn't see the girl's face, but she still looked familiar.

Failing to recall the girl, his thoughts turned to other things, such as reflecting on his mini-holiday. Other than dealing with Billy, it hadn't been as terrible as he thought it would be. He was even willing to reconsider the demanding a raise issue. Perhaps he'd just ask for more holiday days instead.

* * *

Emmy was quite happy with herself.

The third training session was due to begin the next day, Saturday. The second one, which had occurred earlier that week, had gone much smoother than the first. Taking the suggestions of Ash and Nick, Emmy improved the first day training session.

The Quidditch idea was out. In it's place was a series of puzzles and challenges that better combined knowledge of the wizarding and Muggle worlds.

The first challenge had a game show format, most similar to Jeopardy, which the Muggles, and a few Squibs recognized. It involved all three teams competing against each other, with the prize being a few less challenges the winning team had to complete. All topics covered the wizarding world, including history, well-known wizards, products, spells, and wizard life. The Squibs were able to answer the questions, but it was up to the Muggles to instruct them how to do so in the correct format.

After that, the teams were on their own, completing mini-challenges, which was actually a series of stations that were spread out in the main floor of the civic center. One involved be giving a scenario and a list of spells, and figuring out what spells would be best for the scenario.

Some challenges didn't focus on magic at all, but instead on teamwork. Trust falls were required before a team could move on. Another involved the team was presented with a hypothetical situation that involved getting all members from side of the room to the other. The catch being they could only step on a series of platforms (which in reality was just a tape outlined section on the floor), and all members had to be on platform before moving to the next. It was not until the team met the requirements of the station- which was read over a loud speaker as soon as they entered the area- could the team move onto the next station, and eventually finish training for the day.

Nick and Ash approved of the new training, since it focused more on teamwork, while also didn't require them to be a part of it. Since Louis, Erica, and Gavin were chosen as leaders, they were all given the task of blending in on the team, while creating evaluations of their team members for Nick, Ash, and Emmy to review.

Emmy hoped that after combing out leaders in the third group, other training sessions could begin around the country, speeding up the training process. Then the only thing Emmy would have to do, was to classify each recruit, assign them classes, and come up with teachers for the classes. She wasn't too concerned, since she could bring back some teachers from the first round of classes, and certain students who had excelled in classes such as Acting and Information Gathering.

Another reason for her happiness, was that the Order's Manifesto was quickly coming together. That morning, Susan had e-mailed her the Order's new logo, along with the preliminary text. Other than some word changes here and there, Emmy hoped to have the Manifesto out on November first. Originally she had been hoping for Halloween since it was such a big holiday for the wizarding community. Then Nick had pointed out some people might take it for a joke, so the release date was pushed to the next day.

Besides the training progress and the Manifesto, Emmy was happy to see Ash and Nick closer to acting like a couple. After Emmy had responded to Susan's e-mail, she had walked around town a bit before finally spotting the two in a cafe. A guy that reminded Emmy of her grandfather walked out as Emmy was entering. She was quite happy to discover that the booth he had been sitting at was free, and offered a discrete view of Nick and Ash. Emmy preferred to not think of it as spying, but rather as bird watching, specifically the species known as love birds.

Her happiness increased when she tasted the tea, which was truly the most delicious tea she could remember tasting. With the training improved, the Manifesto out soon, Ash and Nick close to officially dating, and the Aurors no closer to stopping the Order, Emmy didn't know if it was possible to be any happier than how she felt at that moment. It was the one of the few times in her life that Emmy wouldn't mind being proven wrong.

****Author's Note****

Yes, I realize this is later than usual. I was almost done with the chapter before realizing I was skipping over just too much, specifically Darren and his mini-holiday. It would have raised too many questions and issues with the plot if I just skimmed over it, so instead I wrote it out.

So next chapter will pick up on November first, with the Manifesto out, and what's going on with Harry and the Auror's.

I'd now like to thank znerom and Myrna Maeve for reviewing the last chapter. Two reviews is much better than none, but it'd be nice to have more. I will respond to signed reviews.

Also, Bushy Park is a real place in London, part of the Royal Parks, and if I got any details about it wrong, I'm sorry. All my information came from Wikipedia.

As for characters mentioned in this chapter, all are OC's, except Harry.

Thanks for reading, and if possible, leave a review!


	16. A Very Harry Chapter

I do not own the rights to Harry Potter. If I did, there would be a Weasley Quidditch Cup.

**A Very Harry Chapter**

Thursday, November 1, 2018

It's not until Ginny tries to summon the mattress does Harry finally get out of bed. It was easy to ignore the sheets and pillows disappearing, but the abrupt feeling of the mattress tossing him to the floor and the sound of it trying to fit through the doorway is harder to overlook.

According to the clock in the room, the time is five-thirty in the morning, thirty minutes later than the time Harry usually gets up. Ginny has been up since four, doing laps around their small Quidditch pitch in the backyard. She may have professionally retired from Quidditch years ago, but old habits die hard. While she claims that it's to keep in shape for the Quidditch Weasley Cup (a tradition started years ago once George made the comment that with all the new Weasley's they could have their own Quidditch team), Harry knows that it's really her way of relaxing before her hectic day begins. Sometimes he would join her in the mornings, but lately he's been too exhausted due to all the late nights of dealing with the Order. How she managed to find the energy to get up early this morning after the rowdy Halloween party they attended the night before, Harry didn't know.

After retrieving the mattress from the door and getting dressed, Harry makes his way to the kitchen and finds Ginny eating breakfast and looking over the morning mail.

"About time. Any longer and I would have been forced to do what my Mum did when she wanted Fred and George up."

"Which was?"

"You don't want to know. If you're lucky, the food is still warm."

Luck does seem to be on his side this morning since the eggs and bacon Harry helps himself to are right above room temperature. In between bites he asks, "Anything exciting come in the mail?"

"Same old stuff. Some Halloween cards, fan mail for you, a letter from Professor Fillmore concerning our eldest child and his cousins' Halloween prank on some Ravenclaw first years," Harry raises an eyebrow while Ginny continues. "We also got an invitation to Teddy's and Victoire's engagement party Saturday night. Fleur sure moves fast, especially since he just proposed last night."

"True, but we've all seen it coming for years. Those two have always been inseparable, it's about time they make it official," replied Harry with a smile.

"Really. Is that why he stopped by the other night?"

"Oh that? I'm afraid I can't tell you, godfather-godson privilege and all that."

Ginny rolls her eyes while she puts her dishes in the sink. "Uh-huh. Well whatever you told him, it was apparently good advice. George and Bill are fine this morning after spending a night in St. Mungo's. You think after all these years they would know better than to mix alcohol and magic. Thank Merlin the Head Healer was on duty, then against she'd have to be on Halloween. According to Fleur's letter, her name was Abby something."

Harry takes a drink of pumpkin juice. "Isn't your interview with Natalie Ross today?"

Ginny nodded as she sat back down. "Apparently she has some big announcement and requested me specifically."

"She already led the Cannons to their first League cup in over two hundred years, and then the World Cup. I can't imagine what else she has to accomplish."

"It's been a year and Ron still hasn't shut up about it."

"Twenty years from now when they're back in a losing streak, he'll still be going on about it like it was just yesterday," joked Harry.

"Merlin, I hope not. I don't know if I can stand twenty more years with him rambling on about how awesome the Cannons are. Last night he was trying to convert Lily from being a Harpies fan."

"Lily's smarter than that. She was only agreeing with Ron about the Cannons to get more chocolate frogs from him. I take it she finally crashed after her sugar high last night?"

"Oh yes, she was complaining about a stomach ache this morning when I checked in on her. I warned her she shouldn't have eaten all that candy, but what do I know, I'm just her mother. I'll have Mum check in on her later today."

"Isn't that a little harsh? I'm pretty sure she's already learned her lesson about eating so much candy, having your mother hovering over her for the day like she's dying might be a bit much."

"It'll just reinforce the lesson," said Ginny with a wave of her hand. "Besides, I thought she hurt your feelings last night when she was more excited about getting a Felix White card than her eleventh Harry Potter card."

Shrugging, Harry responded, "I got over it. My cards are more common than Herpo the Foul. It seems like there's always somebody new at the Ministry asking me to sign theirs. The other day, it was my new Auror, Maisie Cattermole."

Ginny laughed and kissed him on the lips. Once she was done, Harry said, "That was nice. Ginny, I think I've been a good sport so far this morning, but I can't help but feel as if you're distracting me from something. Where's the Prophet?"

"I wanted you to have a chance to relax and enjoy a decent breakfast before you go running off to work."

"Why would I go running off to work?"

Retrieving the Prophet from its hiding place under the sink, Ginny handed it to Harry.

"I don't see..." he began, then his eyes fell onto a piece of paper that was sticking out of the Prophet. "Ah."

"Go on to work, I know you want to."

Harry tucked the piece of paper into his robe and kissed his wife. "Did I ever tell you how amazing you are?"

"Every day."

* * *

Using the Floo Network, Harry managed to make it on time for work. Normally in the mornings, he and his fellow Aurors, and Darren would all meet together in a large room to catch up on the latest news regarding the Order. Assignments might then be handed out, Darren would complain and then leave for his regular job, and the day would proceed like any other day at the Ministry.

Walking into the room, Harry finds Seamus Finnigan and Leanne Boot already present, and having a discussion regarding the piece of paper that is currently in Harry's work robe.

"Have you read it?" asks Seamus.

Leanne looks at her co-worker like with a blank look on her face. How is she suppose to know what 'it' is? She replies, "Read what?"

"This."

Seamus tosses a rather innocent piece of paper on the table before him. Leanne picks it up, and examines the piece of paper.

"Oh, _that_. It came with the morning edition of the Prophet. Not much there other than confirming our fears that the Order wants to break the Statute of Secrecy," she replies, and then returns it to the table top.

"True, but if that was their goal, why not just come out and say 'magic' instead of referring to it as 'uniqueness', 'differences', and 'two worlds'?" asks Seamus.

"Because," answers Harry who decides it's finally time to inform them of his presence, "So far the Muggle World knows little to nothing about the Order, other than they hijacked the trains back in September. If they start ranting about magic being hidden, and Muggles, they won't be taken seriously anymore. All of this would blow over as a crazy consparciy theory group, and the Order would lose any legitmacy they had with Muggles."

"So... what are they planning then? We know they've been recruiting, but for what?" asks Leanne.

"That is the question of the day. Darren, any insight?"

Darren looks up from his place in the corner of the room. He had hoped that by taking advantage of Leanne's and Seamus's conversation, he could slip into the room without Harry noticing he was late, again. Unlike the rest of them, he has to travel to the Ministry, the Muggle way, by using the Underground. Sometimes if a station was too crowded a train might skip the station and just go on to the next one. Of course, that train was always the one Darren needed, so he'd have to wait for the next one to come around. Not that anybody in the room- Harry, Leanne, Seamus, and several other Aurors who had entered the room cared about his transportation woes.

Darren realizes that addressing him is Harry's way of calling attention to the fact that Darren is late again and that he has no idea of what's going on. However, since Harry doesn't directly mention, Darren decides not to mention it either, and avoid the question.

"Oh, me? You want to hear from me now? Usually in the mornings you never want to hear from me."

"Usually in the morning you're not here to ask questions."

Okay, so Harry did go there. Well, Darren could too.

"Silly me, thinking that nobody would notice me missing from my little corner over here, where I do nothing but stare at the wall in boredom during these little morning briefing meetings."

Seamus snorted. "What are you complaining about? You were just on vacation a week ago."

"Pssh. Wasn't much of a vacation..." scoffed Darren.

"Darren..." warned Harry.

"Harry..." replied Darren, matching his tone of voice.

To those in the room, Harry's stern tone was needed since Darren could be a bit dramatic when they were others in a room. It was a trait they had noticed in the past month of working with him, though he was much better with fewer people around.

What they didn't know, was that the stern tone was really meant to warn Darren away from spilling any details about his vacation, and endangering Operation Zeus. As for Darren, he was conveying his frustration that his only real lead, the list of guests from the hotel had turned out to be fake.

After a few minutes of a stare-down between Harry and Darren, Darren finally replied. "They're planning something big, something that'll get the Muggles attention and make the idea of magic much more plausible. See, I do pay attention even when I'm not here."

"Good for you," responded Harry. "Though it would be nice for you to be on time. Now onto this morning's main topic, the Order's Manifesto. I'm assuming everybody here has seen it?"

His response was a bunch of enthusiastic nodding heads.

"Came with my morning edition of the Prophet," commented Leanne.

"Not just the Daily Prophet. I had at least one in all of my e-mail inboxes this morning, and it's all over the internet," added Darren. He could be useful when he wanted to be.

Harry had suspected the Order went after the Muggles as well, but it wasn't until Darren confirmed his fears, did he know if it was true.

"Darren, see if you can track back the e-mails or discover anything about the Order on the Muggle end that we don't already know. Seamus, you take the lead and go with Leanne and Maisie to the Daily Prophet office to see what they know about how the Order's Manifesto appeared in their morning edition. Make sure to ask about when they print the papers, who has access, if it was printed on their paper, and if they know of any suspicious behavior. The rest of you continue with your assignments."

* * *

After everybody in the room was gone, Harry took a closer look at the paper that he had stored in his robe.

It was orange in color, and had three paragraphs that were printed in ordinary black ink. With no enchanted words or images, Harry could only guess that it was printed the Muggle way, just like the ones aboard the Hogwarts Express, which had resulted in a dead end. It was done at some huge office shop, the order had been paid in cash, and the cashier couldn't remember any helpful details.

At the top of the page seemed to be the Order's new logo since Harry had never seen them attached with any image before. The image was of a hand holding a lit torch, with an image of the earth behind it. Underneath it were the tiny words, 'Illuminet tenebras'. Harry's Latin may have been rusty, but if he remembered right, the phrase translated as 'Illuminate the darkness'. Certainly seemed fitting with the fire theme while still being vague, Harry thought to himself.

Beneath the logo was the title, 'The Order of Prometheus's Manifesto'. Short and to the point. However, Harry wasn't quite sure of what to make of the Manifesto itself, which read:

Many have theorized about our true intention, and it's time to dispel the rumors regarding our proud organization, and to make our hopes and dreams known to the rest of the world. Against those who oppose us, we will rise up in defiance, and enlighten the world like the deity we take our name from. Greek legends tell us of the Titan Prometheus, and how he stole fire from the gods to give to humanity. Ironically, the very act that the gods punished him for, actually brought about a new era in which humans thrived and the gods benefited from. Condemned to spending eternity chained to a rock while vultures ate his liver each day, Prometheus was eventually freed by Hercules, son of Zeus and the god that issued Prometheus's punishment.

It is time to tear down the the walls that divide our worlds, and break the Statute of Secrecy. Second, we wish to combine the two worlds and bring about a new age where those who are different will no longer need to hide who they really are, but can embrace both technology and their own uniqueness.

Realistically, we realize that blood might be shed, but wish to keep it to a minimum and have a peaceful transition in power. Embracing the Order and its goals instead of fighting us can ensure this process goes as smooth as possible. All citizens who are tired of the lies and secrets that their governments feed them, should contact their ministers for the truth, and encourage them to support us. Let the world know the truth, and be enlightened by it.

* * *

The Manifesto reminded him of Umbridge's speech at the beginning of his fifth year: wordy, seemingly innocent, but veiled with threats.

The most obvious being the Order's threat to break the Statute of Secrecy. Harry and his fellow Aurors had already suspected something of the sort, but had been hoping that the Order wouldn't go that far. No doubt Shacklebolt's office had already been bombarded by owls sent by concerned wizards wanting to know if it was true, and what the Ministry planned to do about it. No doubt he too would receive his own owl attack, and have to give a quote to the Prophet. He hated doing interviews for it meant walking a thin line between informing the wizarding world of the truth, but yet not causing a mass panic.

It was times like these that he hated being Head Auror and wondered why he didn't choose a simpler profession. It wasn't like he didn't have the offers. He could been a seeker for a professional Quidditch team, Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts, or even have lived off the royalties of his own auto-biography if he had chosen to write it. But_ no_, he had wanted to help wizard-kind by combating the remaining Death Eaters, and preventing another Voldemort. Perhaps his critics were right and he really did have a hero complex.

Sighing, he took another look at the Manifesto. Seamus had been right when he suggested that . The abundance of colons and commas also jumped out at him. Why not just start a new sentence? It would have been simpler and easier to read. Actually, why was the first paragraph the longest? Shouldn't the Order's list of goals be the longest? Also, shouldn't the history about Prometheus get its own paragraph? Hermione had always been the one who excelled at writing essays, but Harry had learned some things over the years about writing essays.

Merlin's Beard. Suddenly he sat up straight in his chair, his finger following the Manifesto line by line, confirming his fears. How could his team have missed this earlier?

Seamus had been wrong. The Manifesto had mentioned the existence of magic.

****Author's Note****

I'd like to thank Son of Whitebeard, znerom, and Myrna Maeve for reviews. In the past reviews have given me ideas, and sent me into a writing frenzy. I appreciate all reviews, and will respond to signed ones.

So did you catch the magic reference? I gave some hints, and it's not like it was that hidden. Also I apologize for the change of tenses in this chapter. I fixed some, but for some reason I'm having an off writing day. Sometime later this week I'll revise the chapter and fix the errors.

After the past couple chapters filled with Emmy and OC's, I thought it'd be a nice change of pace to feature Harry and see how he and the Aurors were doing. Next chapter will feature Emmy's take on things, along with her next plan.

Maisie Cattermole is the daughter of Mary and Reginald Cattermole that was featured in the Deathly Hallows. Their fate was never revealed after Harry, Ron, and Hermione rescued Mary and encouraged them to flee the country, but I'd like to think they survived and repeatedly told the story to their children over the years, causing at least one to become a huge Harry Potter fan and Auror.

The Weasley Quidditch Cup is mine as well, since it does seem like given their huge size and all their friends, it would be appropriate for them to set up their own Quidditch tournament in the summer as a fun get together.

Also the fact about trains skipping crowded stations in London is true, at least according to Wiki.

Seamus, Leanne, Harry, Shacklebolt, and all the Weasley's are canon, the rest are OC's.

Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed the chapter, and if possible leave a review!


	17. Ignorance is Bliss

I do not own the rights to Harry Potter. If I did, the rest of the Chamber of Secrets would be available on Pottermore.

**Ignorance is Bliss**

A week later, and the Aurors was still no closer to figuring out how the Order managed to infiltrate the Daily Prophet offices.

They knew what had occurred. The Daily Prophet had closed early so the employees could celebrate Halloween. The edition for the next day had already been written, and the spells were activated to put it to press and print numerous copies. Sometime between the hours of three in the afternoon on October 31st, and three in the morning on November 1st, persons unknown had entered the premises, made their way past all the security spells, and inserted the Manifestos into every paper, all without leaving a trace behind.

The evidence pointed to it being an inside job. Yet, every employee had an excellent alibi: they were at a Halloween party full of witnesses, and had the hangover to prove it. Even administering Veritaserum hadn't yielded clues. Once again, it seemed as though the Order had appeared from thin air and disappeared just as easily after completing their task, leaving nothing but shaking heads behind.

What the Aurors had failed to account for, was naivete. Sweet, simple naivete, with just a dash of alcohol.

Little Bradley Swick was quite a success story. Hufflepuff Prefect, Head Boy five N.E.W.T.S, star interviewer at the Daily Prophet. One of his proudest interviews had been a one-on-one with the Boy Who Lived upon the fifteenth anniversary of Voldemort's final demise. Sure, he knew Harry's wife Ginny through the Prophet, but to actually be granted a full depth interview from a subject who was notorious for decking reporters, was a lifetime achievement.

However, there was one thing Bradley had always wanted that he didn't have. If he were to look into the Mirror of Erised (assuming he knew about it) the image he would see would be that of him with his brothers. For some reason, no matter how hard he tried in life, all three wanted nothing to do with him. Seeing the relationship between classmates, co-workers, and their siblings made him want a relationship that much more. Despite his best efforts, his brothers continued to shun him from their lives.

So when his three brothers showed up at his door one day wanting to make amends, he welcomed them in without question. When they offered him the Muggle beverages they had brought with him, he accepted the drinks graciously. When they started to ask him questions about his job and the Prophet, Bradley answered without hesitation. The day after the visit, when he awoke with a horrible hangover, all he remembered was the pleasant family reunion he had with his brothers, and that he was looking forward to the Holidays.

* * *

Emmy was quite aware of Bradley's relationship with his brothers, his enthusiasm for his job, and his sweet, simple naivete was why she had Nick send them to Bradley with strict instructions to get information and not to muck it up. She was prepared to cut her losses with the Swick brothers if they did muck it up, but to her surprise, things went smoothly. Apparently when it came to scamming their brother who they blamed for their problems, they were quite the over achievers.

Between the Swick brothers's help, Andrew Stock's, Nick's, Ash's, and Emmy's, they managed to insert Manifesto's into all of the newspapers in just three hours, a record which Emmy was quite proud of. Stuffing all the candy on the Hogwarts Express had taken nearly a day, and the three were nearly caught more times than Emmy cared to admit. There was definitely something to be said for having an army at one's disposal, albeit even a small one.

The Manifesto's themselves had been designed by Susan Collins, including the Order's new logo. The logo was a point of pride for Emmy, since it was a first for the Order.

Before she had set out on her goal to take down the Ministry, she had done some research and on all of history's major rebels (she hated the terms tyrant, dictator, and evil lords) including their successes and failures. What she found, was the most successful ones had some sort of symbol for their regime. Hitler had the swastika, Grindlewald had the Deathly Hallows symbol, Voldemort had the Dark Mark, and now Emmy had hers: a torch representing Prometheus's gift of knowledge, and an earth about to receive it.

The reaction from the Manifesto was mixed.

Muggles were unsure what to make of it, though a few had managed to discover Emmy's secret message, starting off a reaction of conspiracy theories flooding the internet. That was fine with Emmy; all she hoped to gain on the Muggle side was to increase their curiosity of the Order and what the government could potentially be hiding from them. She even started several conspiracy theories herself and added to others.

The wizarding community wasn't confused as much as it was afraid. So far it had been relatively easy to pretend the Order wasn't a threat. They didn't round up wizards and witches in the middle of the night, never to be seen again. Instead, their antics were mostly harmless. At least until they specifically mentioned breaking the Statute of Secrecy.

All of a sudden, their past acts seemed more sinister. They had managed to break into Gringotts and the Daily Prophet, what was next? Hogwarts? Azkaban? The Ministry? If they could get to Hogwarts students on the Hogwarts Express, was there truly any place safe?

That was the reaction Emmy had been hoping for. A reaction of fear, distrust for neighbors and friends, and the sudden realization that perhaps more attention ought to be served to the Muggle world. Which of course, was now, much to late.

* * *

"You do realize that you'll have to deal with him eventually."

Emmy, who was sitting on her bed with her laptop, glanced up at Ash, who was standing in the doorway.

"I know, but it is too much to ask for a couple more minutes of peace before he starts gloating?"

"Apparently not," commented Ash as the door to the flat slammed shut. "Here he comes."

The words were barely out of Ash's mouth before a familiar body shoved its way past Ash and into Emmy's room.

"Sorry Ash, but Emmy has something she has to say me. Well?"

Nick was standing against Emmy's bedroom door with his arms crossed and a wide smirk across his face. Ash had moved out into the hallway where she would be out of the way, but could still watch Emmy squirm.

"Your hair is looking particularly fluffy this fine day," Emmy said as nonchalant as possible. She knew what Nick was really after, but if she was about to admit she was wrong, he could at least work for the apology.

"While I do appreciate the comment about my hair, I'm pretty sure there's something else on your mind, something that was in the Daily Prophet the other day..."

"You mean Natalie Ross's retirement? I never knew you cared about Quidditch, but I do think the Cannons are completely screwed without her."

Nick took a couple steps away from the door and moved closer toward Emmy. "Really? Is it that hard for you to admit that the Swick brothers actually proved to be useful?"

"Yes, yes it is," replied Emmy. Then, seeing the look of disappointment on his face she said, "Fine. You were right, the four idiots are actually useful to the Order."

"Not what I was hoping for, but I'll take it anyway," he said as he pulled out her desk chair and sat down upon it.

"I live to please," Emmy responded, while just grin.

She then got up and went to a small bookcase in the corner. There were three copies of the same book on top, and she picked up two of them.

"Here," Emmy said as she handed one to Nick. "Come in here Ash, I have one for you too."

Nick flipped through the pages. "What is this?"

"A beginner's book for learning Korean. You have three months to learn some basic phrases and to get to know the culture," Emmy answered.

Ash looked from the book in her hand to the grin on Emmy's face. She knew she wouldn't like the answer to her question, but it had to be asked.

"And why exactly do we have to know some basic Korean in three months?"

"Because," Emmy said slowly, drawing out her response as long as possible, "In February we're going to Pyeongchang, South Korea." _  
_

Ash had been right, she didn't like the answer.

****Author's Note****

Why is this chapter so short and late? The answer is that my creativity decided to take a vacation until tonight. I've been trying to write this chapter for several days, and it was only tonight was I finally able to. Next week I have big plans for the chapter, so hopefully it won't happen again.

Moving on. I'd like to thank Myrna Maeve, noonface, and PrincessAnnMacbeth for reviews. Reviews are always appreciated, and it was nice hearing from some new people as well as the old. I look forward to reading all reviews, and will respond to signed ones.

Also, congratulations to those of you who managed to figure out that the first letter of each sentence of the Manifesto spelled out:

M-A-G-I-C I-S R-E-A-L.

It wasn't that hard to figure out. At least, I didn't try to make it hard. I just figured Emmy would include something in the Manifesto to screw with the Ministry, but try to make it somewhat obvious at the same time.

That's all for now, thanks for reading, and if possible leave a review!


	18. Sweet Sixteen

I do not own the rights to Harry Potter. If I did, Petunia would have left Vernon at some point.

**Sweet Sixteen**

December 18th, 2018

Christmas music could be heard from the tiny shops dotting the crowded street that led to Emmy's apartment. Smells like pine trees, peppermint, and spices wafted out of the stores as well. People doing some last minute Christmas shopping filled the streets and stores, all anxious to get that one perfect gift. Decorations adorned the front of the stores, and images of Santa the Nativity were featured in windows, along with the best presents one could buy inside. The entire atmosphere of the area spoke of good tidings and excitement for the holiday.

Emmy hated it all.

Nick and Ash had left her to spend the holidays with their families like they usually did. They might be able to convince their parents they were away at boarding school during the school year or a friend's house for the summer, but they couldn't get out of going home and seeing their families over the winter holidays. Even if they didn't have to return home, they still loved their families after everything they had been through, and wanted to see them. Unlike Emmy.

It wasn't that Emmy _didn't_ want to see her family. Actually, the holidays made her all too aware of that want and desire, something she was normally able to keep at bay during the rest of the year. With Nick and Ash around, she never felt truly alone, and the ache in her chest was easy to ignore. It was just that she_ couldn't_ see her family, they thought she was dead.

At the time, it had seemed like such a good idea. She could run away from Hogwarts all she wanted, but her family and the Ministry would come after her, find her, and drag her right back. Faking her death solved that problem. Who would chase down a dead person? Or suspect they were the ringleader behind the Order of Prometheus?

Emmy's timeline to fake her death was very short. The realization that it was her only option came to her in early November, and she had to pull it before she boarded the Hogwarts Express to go home. The Trace was applied on all first years the first time they went home- the Winter or Summer holidays. Once the Trace was applied, Emmy wouldn't be able to perform any magic without the Ministry finding out, and a dead girl being capable of performing magic was certainly suspicious.

She could go quite a while without performing a single spell, but not six and a half years. Even if she avoided her wand during that period, she couldn't avoid accidental magic. Magic is meant to be used, and it will find a way to be used, intentional or not. Any witch or wizard who was a parent knew that, and that accidental magic was typically more powerful than what their child would have been able to perform on purpose at the time. Losing her control and blowing something up, which she was prone to doing as a child, was a risk Emmy couldn't afford.

There was one other consequence of faking her death, other than not having the Trace placed upon her- she could never go back. Not unless she wanted to be hexed on sight, mistaken for an Inferi, and countless other unpleasant things.

She didn't know if it was ironic or not, but not only did December contain Christmas, it contained her birthday as well. Which also happened to be her death-day, just a quirk of fate as it were.

The only reason she was out in the first place was to get some much needed air. Being cooped up in her flat for several days while working on her latest project had caused Emmy to come down with a case of the stir-crazies. She had put off going out as long as possible, knowing the festive mood that awaited her outside and how much she dreaded it.

So lost in her thoughts and her distaste for the season, Emmy didn't hear the voice calling out from behind her. It wasn't until the person grabbed her arm spinning her around did she realize what was going on.

"Kelly, I've been calling your name for the past couple blocks. Didn't you hear me?"

The guy before her was out of breath, panting heavily. Emmy stared at him, trying to figure out who he was and how he knew her. Kelly was what he called her, but she had used that name plenty of times over the past couple months with dozens of potential Order recruits. Then his name popped into her head.

"Louis?" she asked, not entirely sure if her guess at his identity was correct.

He nodded. "Yeah, it's been a couple months. How are you doing?"

"Um..."

Emmy was unsure of how to respond. She had never met anybody in the Order or from training outside of Coke's Worth. Which might have something to do with the fact that she really didn't go out that much in the first place. Just her luck the one day she did go out, she not only runs into somebody, but it happened some mere blocks from her flat.

Since 'Um' wasn't a proper response, Emmy made the decision that it should be safe enough to talk to Louis.

"Sorry about earlier... I was distracted."

It was true that she had been lost in her thoughts. What Emmy didn't mention was that she had also forgotten that she should respond to the name 'Kelly' instead of 'Emmy', but Louis didn't need to know that piece of information.

"That's fine. Everything going alright?"

"Yeah... it's my birthday."

Emmy hadn't meant to blurt out the last part, it had just slipped out of her mouth before her brain caught up.

"Well happy birthday then," responded Louis. "Or not? You look kinda down."

"Nothing," said Emmy as she shook her head. "It's just... I'm having family issues, and haven't seen them in a while."

That was the closest to the truth Emmy had ever told anybody, including Ash and Nick. Emmy was starting to wonder if the real reason she needed to get out of her flat was that she secretly craved some social interaction and not fresh air like she had thought originally. Over the past couple years she had gotten used to living on take-out and staying alone in her flat for weeks.

Everything had changed last spring when she sought out Nick who introduced her to Ash. After that all three started to live together, working on the Order. Emmy had sent letters to the school informing them that Nick and Ash were transferring, while the two of them kept up the appearance of attending boarding school to appease their parents. The money they sent to the school to pay for Nick and Ash's tuition, Emmy intercepted and used to pay the flat's bill and as the Order's start-up money.

Now, here she was alone for the first time in a while, needing human companionship. She made a note that she should look into having a pet of some sort. Perhaps an animal companion would stave off these feelings of loneliness and prevent her from blurting out her birthday to near strangers. A cat would be nice; dogs were more lovable but required being taken outside to go to the bathroom. Owls were meant to fly and deliver messages, so one wouldn't be happy to be kept in a flat all day.

"Lost in your thoughts again?" interrupted Louis.

Emmy looked up at him and nodded. "Sorry. It's just a bad time of the year."

"Ah, the holidays. Look, I have family issues of my own, so I have an idea of what you're going through, even if they're not the same. Hey, I have an idea. Since it's your birthday let's go out and celebrate, my treat."

"You don't have to do that," replied Emmy.

He didn't have to, and wouldn't have offered if Emmy hadn't opened her mouth. What was odd was the fact that Emmy found in spite of the knowledge that he shouldn't, Emmy was also hoping that he would. While it was mostly due to the comfort of being around somebody else, there was a little part of her that was looking forward to celebrating her birthday. The last time she had done so was when she had turned eleven and received her Hogwart's letter.

"It's fine. I was just finishing some last minute Christmas shopping. Come on, I insist," said Louis as he held out his hand to Emmy.

Deciding that she had nothing to lose, Emmy accepted. She really didn't know why Ash had complained all those months ago about Louis. From what Emmy could tell, he was a pretty decent guy.

* * *

Louis's idea of celebrating Emmy's birthday was quite different than her own. Emmy would have been perfectly fine with sitting in a quiet cafe, catching up. While Emmy knew what Louis had been up to Order-wise since she was the one who gave him his assignments (which Louis wasn't aware of), but she didn't know much about his private life other than the fact that he was a resentful Squib.

Louis however, celebrated by telling everybody they came in contact with that it was Emmy's birthday. By the end of the day, half of London was probably aware that it was 'Kelly Langley's' birthday. Emmy knew that she should be bothered by that fact since it was a bit of a security risk, but she was busy relishing the individual attention to care. The Order was getting plenty of attention nowadays, but Emmy wasn't. Only Ash and Nick knew that Emmy was in charge of the Order, to the rest of the world Emmy remained anonymous. Since she was anonymous, Emmy couldn't claim credit for the Order's work which was bothering her much more than she planned on.

So yes, she did enjoy getting a free popcorn at the theaters when Louis took her to see Avengers 3 after he told the cashier it was her birthday. She could tell that Louis was completely at a loss since he was a Squib, but Emmy enjoyed filling him on the plot from the other movies, and explaining what was going on. Emmy enjoyed the free dessert as well, at the pub Louis took her to afterwards. She even enjoyed herself when he took her ice skating for the first time, at one of the free public rinks in London.

At one point Louis had offered to treat her to Diagon Alley thinking she might like the wizard version of Christmas decorations compared to the Muggle ones. Emmy did appreciate the thought, but figured going there and announcing it was her birthday might be tempting fate more than Emmy wanted. To the Muggle world she was Kelly Langley and there was a slim chance of recognition. To the wizarding world she had a previous identity, and Emmy didn't need the wrong person to notice a blonde girl with a birthday who looked suspiciously similar to somebody they used to know with the same exact birthday.

As the were taking their skates off, Emmy said, "Thanks. This has been one of the best birthday's I've had in a very long time."

"No problem. I just realized something, I never asked you how old you are," responded Louis.

"Sixteen. I turn sixteen today," said Emmy as she stood up and wobbled a bit. Her legs had finally gotten adjusted to skating, and now they had to adjust back to being directly on the ground, something they weren't happy with.

"Sweet sixteen," commented Louis. "Isn't that what you Muggles call it?"

"That sounds about right," replied Emmy.

"For wizards the big birthdays are eleven and then seventeen, that's when you're considered to be an adult. Here, let me walk you home."

Emmy shook her head. "I don't think that's a great idea. I've had fun hanging out with you, but knowing where each other lives might be dangerous if we ever got caught." Especially if Louis ever got caught and the Aurors realized who Emmy really was.

Louis gave her a funny look before he said, "Alright, point taken. I already know your name and birthday, I can't see what harm it'd be knowing where you live, but if it makes you feel any better..."

"It does," said Emmy. "I'm weird like that. Thanks again for the great day. We should do something again, and that way I can pay you back."

"Sounds great. Kelly, I don't know what's going on exactly in your family, but I'm guessing it has something to do with magic. Don't let it come between you and your family, you only get one and you shouldn't throw them away over something trivial. If you give them another chance, I'm sure everything will work out in the end."

"Thanks for the advice, I'll have to consider it."

Emmy did appreciate the advice and the optimism, but she doubted she could back to her family anytime soon with the whole 'they think I'm dead' thing. Maybe once the Order had taken over and succeeded she could come forward and visit them. That is, if they could get over the whole 'my daughter brought down the Ministry' thing. Emmy didn't know which was worse, having a kid who was dead, or having one that brought down the government and instituted a new world order that went against one's personal views.

"Good. It was nice seeing you," said Louis.

"You too," responded Emmy, and both went their separate ways as the left the skating rink.

On the walk home, Emmy stopped at one of the stores she had condemned earlier to pick up a small Christmas tree, some lights, and several ornaments. She couldn't celebrate the holidays with her family, but she could at least celebrate it on her own, and look forward to next year. She even treated herself to some Christmas decorations as well for the flat.

Overall, her sixteenth birthday had been better than she could have ever hoped for. After going over everything that she had enjoyed about the day in her head, Emmy realized that she had never apologized or said thanks so much in her life before. The funny thing was, Emmy had meant every word for once, and didn't regret any of it.

****Author's Note****

Thanks goes to noonface, Son of Whitebeard, and Myrna Maeve for leaving reviews. I don't know how many times I have to say it, but reviews are always appreciated, and I will respond to signed ones.

I've been looking forward to doing this chapter for a while since it involved revealing a bit more of Emmy's past and showing more about her character. I do have one long chapter planned toward the end which will explain why and how Emmy faked her death. It's not for a while, but pretty much all the questions you might have should be answered in that chapter. If not, let me know and I should be able to answer them freely at that point.

As for South Korea, the reason behind it does relate to Emmy's next project which will be mentioned again.

The books never fully explained how/when the Trace was applied, so I just made my own assumptions. Also, I don't know if London has a skating rink or not, I just thought it'd be a fun winter activity for Louis and Emmy to do together.

Thanks for reading this chapter, and if possible please leave a review!


	19. Making Progress

I do not own the rights to Harry Potter. If I did, I wouldn't need a real world job.

**Making Progress**

Since she ran into Louis on her birthday, Emmy had been in a much better mood, even without Nick and Ash around. She still had another couple of days before they would return to the flat, which she was fine with. Those couple of days she planned on using to put last minute touches on her South Korean project. For once Nick and Ash got back, all three would be leaving for Pyeongchang.

The twenty-third Olympic Winter Games didn't begin until February ninth, but Emmy wanted to arrive in Pyeongchang early. It would allow her to familiar herself with the area, as well as the broadcasting equipment and Olympic Park of Hoenggye. Arriving early would also mean that the trio would arrive ahead of other Olympic fans and athletes, causing certain areas to be less crowded, and security to be more lax.

Going through hundreds of hours of video that the Eyes of Argus had gathered over the years was exhausting. Anticipating long hours of having to watch irrelevant film, Emmy had written a computer program to search through the videos for her, and then flag ones that might be of interest to Emmy. Improving the program was a daily process; teaching it to differentiate between real magic and Muggle magic, actual wizards and Muggles dressed up as wizards, and the random scenes that it mistook as being relevant. Which is what she was currently doing; watching the most recent flagged videos and either saving them or improving the program so a similar video wouldn't be flagged for her to watch next time.

After saving a video featuring a drunk wizard enchanting several public trash cans to do the conga down the sidewalk, Emmy was finally on her last video for the day.

The time-date stamp showed that the video had occurred last night, and the location came as a surprise to Emmy- a warehouse in London. Wizards typically didn't frequent such places, which was why she had never bothered to put cameras of her own in the location. Instead, the video had come from one of the many government surveillance cameras the government had set up across the United Kingdom, a system that Emmy had hacked into.

What Emmy saw before her, was not magic related. A group of Muggles were unloading pallets from a truck, and storing them inside the warehouse. The pallets were covered with tarps making it hard to tell what was beneath them, until one slipped off suddenly. When that happened, Emmy understood why the program had flagged the video for review. She may not have known what kind of guns they were, but she did know that they were bigger guns than she usually saw, and whole pallets of them weren't normal.

The entire scene didn't look right, and didn't feel right to Emmy. If it wasn't for several lights illuminating the area, Emmy wouldn't have been able to see what was happening at all, something she was guessing wasn't a coincidence. Similar to the pallets, the faces of the people involved were covered as well. All except one person, who thought he was safe hiding in the entrance of the warehouse.

From what Emmy could gather from the reactions of the other people and how he was the only one not doing anything, she guessed that he was the one in charge. Some zooming and editing later, Emmy had managed to get the best image possible of his face. After gaining illegal access to several facial recognition databases, she now had an 90% match for the identity of her mystery man.

Robberies, burglaries, and footage of other crimes, Emmy never bothered to pay attention to before. In all those instances there were victims who reported the crimes to the authorities, who would then pull up the footage from the surveillance cameras. As for the crimes the her own system of cameras caught on film... she had never given them a thought. Her system was meant to catch wizards and witches doing magic, not Muggle criminals.

Once she thought about it, she was surprised that her system hadn't flagged similar videos earlier. If it had, she might have a better idea of what to do in her current situation.

Her mystery man, wasn't some ordinary, low-level criminal. Like Emmy, he was the leader of an organization devoted to overthrowing the current government. Unlike Emmy, he used violence to achieve his goals. So far it had been little things, kidnapping some politicians and holding them for ransom, destroying some manufacturing factories- illegal acts for sure, but only a handful of people had gotten hurt. The guns though, indicated that he was planning for something bigger, and would most likely result in casualties.

She was torn over what to do. He had beliefs similar to hers, that the people in charge walked all over the little people. In her case it was Muggles and Squibs, in his it was the so-called 99%. His methods were more violent than hers, but so far not a lot of people had gotten hurt. Besides, the camera wasn't even her's, it was the government's. For all Emmy knew, they might already be aware of his plans. If they weren't, well that was their own fault and they would just have to learn their lesson. Why install surveillance cameras all over the country if you weren't even going to use them properly? He wasn't even a wizard, so technically it wasn't even her job to care or do anything. If it hadn't been for her program, she would have never seen the footage at all.

But.

But she had seen the footage, and if she didn't act, innocent people might die. Emmy was well aware that people died in revolutions, a fact that she had managed to avoid so far. That could change later on, as the Order got closer and closer to overthrowing the Ministry. If Emmy had been willing to go to that level, she would have accepted Ash's and Nick's suggestion months ago.

They had brought up the idea of her using her magic to break into military bases, and then threaten to send missiles to Hogwarts, Hogsmeade, Diagon Alley, and other wizard locations unless the Ministry cooperated with the Order. It was a bit extreme, but completely doable, even factoring in that Emmy only had one semester's worth of school. Since wizards didn't take Muggles seriously, not a single Ministry official had given thought to having magical security to prevent renegade wizards like Emmy from accessing dangerous Muggle weapons like missiles, warheads, nukes...

She had often wondered how the world might be different if Voldemort had actually paid attention to the Muggle world he had grew up in and despised. What would have happened if he used his magic to gain control of Muggle weapons, sending them after the Potter's instead of going after Harry himself. It may have been the 1980's, but the technology existed for him to simply enter their coordinates if he choose to do so. If he had, no love shield would have been capable of saving Harry from a missile, or any spell really.

The idea of the damage that she could do with Muggle weapons was something she had been thinking of even before Ash and Nick mentioned it. If she had chosen to go down that path, the Ministry would have fallen by now, along with many wizards and Muggles. What prevented Emmy from choosing that route was the realization that any support she might receive from the Muggle public, Squibs, or even wizards, would end once innocent lives were lost due to the Order. It was a point of no return for the Order; they could no longer claim to be the good guys taking down the big bad Ministry.

Her reasoning appeased Ash and Nick at the time, they stopped questioning her methods and started working on the tunnels beneath Gringotts. It seemed as if she was done discussing violence as a means to an end. At least until a later date, when it came time to physically overthrow the Ministry, then Emmy would have to address the issue. However, she was now being forced to address the issue now.

If she condemned his group for their future actions, she was also condemning herself for the Order's future actions. Then again, he was choosing to use violence, whereas she as choosing to avoid violence. That had to count for something. She wanted to keep the loss of life to a minimum, preferably zero, while he didn't seem to care either way. Luck was the only reason his group hadn't killed anybody yet, and it looked as if it was about to change.

In the end, she decided to do the decent thing- report it to the authorities. It just so happened she knew one person who would ensure that the information was passed to the people who could actually do something, take her seriously, and not ask too many questions about how she got the information. Well, she hoped.

* * *

Once she was done, she was left feeling all warm and fuzzy; the benefit of doing a good deed and making the right moral choice. It was an odd feeling, one that she hadn't felt in a very long time. Usually she was too busy feeling self-righteous and completing acts to help the Order and herself rather than others.

To distract herself from that line of thought, she chose to read her latest e-mail which was from Esther. Since most Squibs didn't have access to internet or computers, they would owl her if they had any information that would benefit the Order. She in turn would then e-mail it to an account Emmy had set up for that purpose. It was the best system since Emmy still wished to remain anonymous for the time being, and any magical correspondence involved the sender either knowing her name and location, or seeing her face to face. E-mail was much less personal; for all Esther knew she could be responding to a fifty-two year-old man named Jacque who lived in the Bahamas. Extremely unlikely, but the point was that if Esther was ever caught she could honestly say she had no idea who was in charge.

The system worked the other way as well, whenever Emmy needed to reach Squibs, she'd just send Esther an e-mail. She had done so the other day, suggesting that it'd be a good idea for them to all gather together on February ninth and watch the opening ceremony. She didn't say why, just that they might find them interesting. Getting in touch with the Muggles was much easier since they already had e-mail accounts and internet access. To them she sent messages suggesting they all throw parties as well on February ninth, and invite their Muggle friends, including ones who didn't know about magic.

The e-mail Esther had sent, contained sensitive information that required Lila Hopkins visiting in person to deliver. The news had yet to be released to the Prophet, and all teachers were banned from owling anybody with the news.

Sometime between the time students and most of the teachers left Hogwarts for the winter holiday, and the week that the teachers returned before the students did, a theft had occurred at Hogwarts. It was an unusual theft, only two items were taken- the magical book and quill that recorded the births and location of all Hogwarts students.

The theft hadn't been discovered until just a couple days ago. The reason for the secrecy was that it was still unknown if it was a true theft or if the book and quill were simply misplaced. Hogwarts was a huge magical building after all, and objects weren't unknown for disappearing in one place, while reappearing in another, there was even a vanishing cabinet famous for such incidences. Another possibility was that the disappearance was actually a prank pulled by students before they left to go home, or even Peeves. A quiet investigation was currently underway, and the results would be made public once it was determined the true cause of the disappearance.

Emmy's first thought was to check her cameras at Hogwarts. There were only a few, mainly meant as an experiment to see if Emmy's modifications made it possible for them to function inside Hogwarts, and if so, to see how long they would last. She had been meaning to return to Hogwarts and install more cameras, but the Order had kept her too busy over the last couple of months to do so. The last time she had checked her footage from Hogwarts was before the students left for the holidays, and that was just to see if her cameras had managed to record anything she could use for her South Korean project.

Unfortunately, the few cameras she did have there, didn't manage to catch anything relevant to the book's disappearance. That didn't come as much as a surprise to Emmy who at the time thought if anybody was going to break into Hogwarts or Sinestra's office it would be her, and she definitely didn't want evidence of her crimes captured on tape. To do so would have been tempting fate for the footage to fall into the wrong hands who would use it as evidence against her.

Assuming that it was a theft and not a prank or a simple disappearance, why would anybody steal the book? That question bothered Emmy much more than the one she had been confronted with earlier in the day. The obvious reason was that somebody wanted to locate specific Hogwarts students. If that was the case, why not simply copy the information down like she had done? Why take the book physically with you? That would just alert the Headmaster and the Ministry that one was interested in the book. She would have concluded the culprits were just morons, but the time they struck indicated otherwise.

Few people, students and teachers, were around during the winter break, including Sinestra. During the holidays she would join her family as they celebrated the holidays in Switzerland, according to Serena, her sister. Therefore the thieves would only have to worry about them getting caught breaking in and not that the theft would immediately be discovered, weeks would pass before Sinestra was due to return.

Distracting Emmy from her thoughts was the beeping of her mobile, an alarm reminding her that she only had half an hour before she was going to meet up with Louis. Ever since her birthday, the two had been hanging out together. Since he was a Squib who was trying to adjust to Muggle life, he did have a mobile. Not that he used it much, but it was enough that Emmy, or Kelly, managed to get in touch with him.

If Ash was there, she would have called them dates. Luckily Ash and Nick weren't there, so Emmy didn't have to endure listening to Ash's comments or the 'K-I-S-S-I-N-G' from Nick. It was for those reasons that even once they did return, Emmy wouldn't tell them about her time spent with Louis.

With him, she wasn't constantly worrying about the Order, being caught, or moral dilemmas. For those few hours she was a normal, typical teenager. It was a feeling she hadn't felt in a long time, just like the warm feeling she had felt earlier after doing a selfless act, except it was much more pleasant.

Grabbing her coat, Emmy walked out the door to go to the cafe where she was going to meet Louis. All of the problems and issues from earlier, were left behind. There'd be time to deal with them later.

****Author's Note****

I would like to start off by admitting I made a calculation error. The 23rd Winter Olympics are taking place in South Korea on February 9, 2018, not February 9, 2019, when this chapter takes place. By the time I realized my error, the year and dates had already been set, and I was left with the option to move it from 2018 to 2019 and admit my mistake. Everything else regarding the Olympics in this chapter is accurate.

With that out of the way, I'd like to now thank Myrna Maeve, Ijoan, and Wise girl16. Reviews are always appreciated, and I will respond to signed ones.

I haven't really written a lot regarding the Eyes of Argus, but I have had the idea of her system capturing criminal activity and her facing what to do about it for a while. Same goes for the book and quill being taken.

So next chapter Ash and Nick will be back, and all three will be in South Korea.

Thanks for reading, and if possible, leave a review!


	20. May the Odds be Ever in Your Favor

I do not own the rights to Harry Potter. If I did, shield charms would be possible, and all my electronics would have them.

**May the Odds be Ever in Your Favor**

February 9, 2019

Olympic Park of Hoenggye

Pyeongchang, South Korea

"Welcome back to the opening ceremony of the twenty-third Winter Olympic Games."

Bonnie Bates, co-host for the BBC coverage of the opening ceremony plastered a wide smile on her face. Sitting next to her was co-host Tom Donovan, who was trying to look just as perky as his co-host, which was quite hard due to the jetlag he was suffering from. He didn't know how Bonnie was managing it, (a combination of Monsters, Red Bulls, and coffee, not recomended) and was trying his best to keep up with her enthusiasm.

His wide smile was creepy more than enthusiatic, but he kept right on talking. "The Olympic torch is getting closer and closer to the stadium, and we have yet to receive word on who the final torch bearer is."

"That's right, Tom," smiled Bonnie. "While we're waiting, how about a little history about the Olympic torch?" Not waiting for a response from Tom, Bonnie went right into her spheal that she had practiced earlier. "During the ancient Olympics, a fire was kept burning throughout the games, celebrating the Greek titan Prometheus stealing fire from the Greek gods. It was at the 1928 Summer Olympics that the fire was reintroduced, and at the 1936 Summer Olympics was the torch relay started."

"Who knew that there was so much history behind such a powerful symbol?" Bonnie beamed at Tom, only because it wasn't appropriate to glare at one's co-worker on national television. She had just been about to rattle off more facts and history, but had been cut off by him.

"And here the Olympic torch comes into the stadium, being carried by Kim Yu-Na," said Tom.

Interrupting him like he had her, Bonnie said, "She won gold in figure skating at the 2010 games in Vancover, setting a world record in the process."

By this point, Tom had realized what was going on, and decided he wasn't going to let Bonnie get the last word. "It was the first medal for South Korea at the Winter Olympics outside of short track and speed skating. She's also a bit of a celebrity in South Korea, at one point she even had her own reality ice skating TV show."

Bonnie, still miffed at Tom, beat him to the announcement of the final torch bearer. "I can't say that I'm shocked at seeing triple Olympic gold medalist Kim Ki-hoon carrying the Olympic torch into the stadium."

Without missing a beat, Tom replied, "I agree Bonnie. Not only did he win Korea's first Winter gold medal at the '92 Albertville games, he was also the first short-tracker to defend his olympic title, the only person to have swept all the gold medals available in short-track speed skating, and couted and coached triple gold medalist Ahn Hyun-Soo who won gold at the '06 Turin games. After all that, he then became a professor at Ulsan College. He's quite the remarkable athelete, even at fifty-one years-old."

"And now the moment we've all been waiting for, the lighting of the Olympic torch," said Bonnie.

Kim Ki-hoon, ignorant of the silent feud between the two BBC announcers, continued running toward the center of the stadium where the Olympic Cauldron was waiting. All around him the crowd in the stadium was cheering, and images of famous past Olympic moments, including some of his own, played on the screens that surrounded the stadium.

In the center of the stadium was a huge torch, and it was at the bottom that Kim transferred the flame. Around and around the larger torch it spiraled its way up; the only light in all the stadium since the lights had been turned off to add to the moment. Finally, the fire reached the top of the torch, exploding into a much larger flame.

The crowd oohed and awwed at the image before them, and the fireworks exploding above. On the screens around the stadium, images of fire and fireworks filled them. For a second the images flickered, before the screens blanked completely. The audience noticed, but didn't care, they were too enthralled with what was going on above. Even Bonnie and Tom had become silent for once.

* * *

Emmy screamed.

The lights in her hotel room flickered before the lightbulbs exploded, along with the TV that had been airing the opening ceremony that caused her ire in the first place. Both Ash and Nick flinched at the noise they made. Neither one could recall a time when they had seen Emmy so mad. Unsure of what to do, they decided the safest option was to remain silent and try to not become targets of Emmy's magic which seemed to be uncontrollable at the moment.

The screaming soon stopped, but Emmy was still fuming on the inside. All of her hard work over the past couple of months, gone. Watching hundreds of videos featuring wizards using magic and even more unrelated videos. Then spending even more hours editing the best clips together into a five minute video.

Knowing the symbolism of the Olympic Flame, and the international attention the Opening Ceremony would recieve, Emmy had come up with a novel idea of exposing magic to the Muggle world, an act that would make oblivating or modifying all the memories of the Muggle witnesses impossible. All Ministries of Magic would have a hard time concealing the existance of wizards for much longer.

The moment when Kim Ki-hoon lit the Olympic Cauldron and the Olympic Flame exploded, Emmy's plan was supposed to begin. On the screens surrounding the stadium, her video was to start playing. Over the next five minutes image after image of wizards performing magic, even young Hogwarts students was to be played. At the end was a message from the Order, breaking the Statute of Secrecy once and for all. Mere seconds after that, the video would be sent to millions of e-mails, uploaded to numerous video sites, making it near impossible for the Ministry of Magic to remove it from the internet like they had of the footage of the Hogwarts Express that had been uploaded on September first.

That was the whole point of coming to South Korea a month ahead of time, to get close to the broadcasting equipment, study how the screens were designed and figure out a plan of attack. One day Ash and Nick had returned, and the next they were on a plane destined for Pyeongchang, South Korea. To Emmy's dismay, Ash and Nick hadn't spent any time studying Korean over their break. Luckily, many South Koreans were ready for the onslaught English-speaking tourists, and were semi fluent in the language.

Except, the video that she had put so much work into never aired, and the opening ceremony had occurred without incident. Somebody had managed to best Emmy, and she had an idea of who that somebody was.

"What are you doing?" asked Ash in a quiet voice as Emmy grabbed her laptop and sat down on one of the beds in the room. Now that Emmy seemed to be calmer, it seemed alright to approach her.

"Research," Emmy replied. Then she added, "And revenge. What happened just now wasn't a concidence... who knew wizards had a brain."

"So there's a mole in the Order," stated Ash.

Nick disagreed. "Maybe not. We told how many people to watch the opening ceremony? Not surprising that word got to the Ministry that something was going down. They may be stupid, but they're not_ that_ stupid. If they were, Muggles would know about magic by now. We still have two weeks to pull something, there's even the closing ceremony."

"No," said Emmy simply. She then looked up from her laptop. "I was wrong. I thought we would have to take on the Muggle World by exposing magic, before we could take down the Ministry. I thought that the pressure from the Muggles would be too much, that the Ministry would have no choice but to concede defeat. It would have worked, but the Golden Boy went and found somebody with the same computer skills as me."

A frown appeared on her face. She knew about Darren, but had never actually figured he was a threat, just that he was a Squib who liked to dabble with computers, that her skill far outranked his. Once again she was paying the price of being too prideful, and unlike before, the consequences were much higher.

She continued talking. "We're changing focus and going after the Ministry. Once they fall, nobody will be able to stop us from revealing magic to Muggles, not even the Golden Boy."

Grins spread on Ash's and Nick's faces. "What's the plan?" asked Nick.

"I'm still working out the how, but I already know the when," Emmy answered. "We have less than three months to prepare. For now, let's concentrate on going home."

* * *

In a box at the stadium which overlooked the opening ceremony, a celebration was occurring. It was a celebration quite unlike the others that were occurring in the city that night. It was not celebrating the beginning of the Olympic Winter Games. Instead, it was celebrating the successful attempt at stopping the opening ceremony from being attacked by the Order of Prometheus. A virtual attack that is.

Harry Potter, or as Emmy called him, the 'Golden Boy', shook hands with his South Korean counterpart, Jang Yeong. Yeong was shorter than Harry, but he had a presence that reminded Harry of Albus Dumbledore, and even a twinkle in his eye. "Thanks for all the help, we couldn't have done this without all of your help."

"You are very welcome Mr. Potter. If the Order would have succeeded, your Ministry would not have been the only one affected, all Ministries around the world would have been. The least we could do was help," responded Yeong, Head Auror for the South Korean Ministry of Magic.

A large hand clapped Harry on the back. "Yo, you need to try this soju," said Darren, referring to the drink in his hand, "Not as strong as firewhiskey, and has a much sweeter taste. Almost as sweet as this thing," he said referring to the sweet in his other hand.

Yeong chuckled. "What you have there is a hangwa, a treat that is usually consumed at holidays and festivals. I think it is acurrate to say that today qualifies as such. I'm glad you are enjoying your soju and hangwa Mr. Tremlett. Many foreigners are hesitant to try Korean cuisine if they are unfamiliar with it."

"Mr. Tremlett is my grandfather, just call me Darren. Oh, that looks good," said Darren with his mouth full of the hangwa. "Oh, that looks good." Not giving a chance for them to respond, he dashed off to try another piece of food that caught his eye.

"You get used to him after a while," commented Harry. Then, changing the subject he said, "You have quite the operation here."

By 'operation' he was referring to the numerous computer wizards in the room. They weren't just wizards with computers like Darren was, but were actual wizards as well.

Once Harry had realized the Order was most likely going to do something at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Winter Games in South Korea, he had told Kingsley who then contacted the South Korean Minister of Magic. From there, Harry and Yeong had started to correspond about what the Order could potentially do. Given their past history, the most obvious was some sort of interference with the ceremony.

They prepared for a phyisical was well as a virtual attack. Aurors, hit wizards, and even volunteer wizards were set up in the audience and at the entrance to the games, a security force that rivaled that of the most recent Quidditch World Cup. For a virtual attack, Harry had brought Darren, while Yeong had his own squad of technology competent wizards.

"Unlike your country we have found a way to balance our traditions and Muggle technology. Years ago the Muggles started improving their technology at such a pace, we could no longer ignore them, especially with the weapons our Muggle neighbors to the North were rumored to have," explained Yeong. "Instead of ignoring it, we decided to embrace it. By doing so, the relationship between wizards and Muggles is much more stable here than the United Kingdom."

"How did you get around the issue of magic interferring with technology?" asked Harry.

"Ah," replied Yeong. "It was quite tricky, but after several years we discovered that by placing a modified shielding charm around our electronics. All outside magical influences would 'bounce' off the shield, and the device would continue to function as usual. Also is effective against hot beverages, and unforeseen accidents. It only works though if the device is unplugged at the time the charm is applied, otherwise the magic from the charm would cause the device to break."

"How come I haven't heard about these spells before? We could set up a similar system at home, to prevent future Order attacks."

"I believe that is because your country-men prefer the old ways. You still write with quills and parchment, yes? Other progressive countries such as China, Japan, and America have embraced the charm, and created systems similar to our own."

Harry nodded. "Is it possible that I could get some notes on that charm and your system? Given the Order's history, the sooner we set up a system at home, the better."

"Very well, Mr. Potter. Now that the attack has been stopped, how much longer will you stay here?"

"Until the Olympics are over. Since they failed at the opening ceremony, they will probably try again."

Yeong smiled. "Then together we will stop them."

****Author's Note****

I'd like to thank Son of Whitebeard, Mryna Maeve, LizziePixie-Aiko, and BrokenRainbowsShatteredDreams for reviews. As for the ages of the next generation, I'm assuming you're referring to Harry's kids. This story takes place after the epilogue, so James is in his fourth year, Albus is in his second, and Lily is due to start Hogwarts next September. So far they've been very minor characters, but I do have plans for at least one of them. It won't be a major role, but it will be a bit more important than what's been shown so far.

Important Notice:

In this past week I've accepted a job offer, signed a lease for a townhouse, and started to pack. Within the next week I expect to finish packing, move, and unpack. I don't know when I'll have internet at the townhouse, so they're might be no new chapter Thursday. If that is the case, don't panic because I should have internet the following Thursday, and there will be an update then.

Some notes about this chapter. All the facts regarding Kim Yu-Na and Kim Ki-hoon are correct, as is the information about the Olympic Flame's connection to Prometheus. Whether or not they'll carry the torch in the opening ceremonies I have no idea, just that tradition dictates the ones doing so are athletes that have made major contributions to their country in past Olympic games, and it seemed like those two would definitely qualify as potential candidates. Also, I have no idea of what the stadium will look like. I imagine the screens around the stadium to be similar to that of the Bird Nest from the Bejing summer games.

As tradition goes, South Korea is known for their technology, and their internet is one of the fastest in the world. Therefore I thought it would make sense for them to embrace technology rather than ignore it like the wizards in the UK. I doubt Emmy paid much attention to that fact when deciding to go there, she was too attracted to the symbolism of the torch.

All the information about soju and hangwa come from a wiki article about Korean cuisine, so if it's inaccurate, that's why. Similar to the Japanese, Koreans introduce themselves by their family name first. So while Yeong is first called Jang Yeong, the western version of his name is Yeong Jang. For those interested, I came up with his name since it was belonged to Jang Yeong-sil, a 15th-century Korean scientist and inventor, the closest to a historic Korean wizard as I could get.

Expect Emmy's new plan to be revealed soon, along with her revenge on Darren.

That's all for now, thanks for reading, and if possible leave a review!


	21. Keep Moving Forward

I do not own the rights to Harry Potter. If I did, I'd be able to set my own work hours and wouldn't be too tired to write.

**Keep Moving Forward**

In hindsight, Emmy's defeat at the Olympics really wasn't that surprising. What would have been surprising was if she had pulled it off. The ministries of the United Kingdom, France, Italy, and the rest of Europe shared a similar disdain for all things Muggle, and preferred not bothering to learn about their technology. Given their superior attitude, Emmy had long ago assumed that all magical ministries were the same, as were all magical communities and had never bothered to do any research on foreign ministries, including South Korea's.

She had mixed feelings regarding her lack of research. While it had it led to her latest schemes failure, if she had known she probably would have gone ahead and preceded with her plan anyway, seeing it as a challenge. Maybe knowing what to expect she might have succeeded, or maybe she would have failed anyway. Her biggest regret over not doing her research, was that she hadn't done it when she was younger.

That was the biggest maybe of them all. Maybe if she had only read a bit more, or pursued other options, she wouldn't have had to run away, fake her death, and leave her family. If she had known about South Korea and their realization that the only way to keep their traditional wizarding way of life was embracing Muggle technology- not shunning it- her life would be different. Over break she would have begged and pleaded with her parents to send to the Seroaksan Temple, a school for wizards that was even older than Hogwarts, but recruited students at a young age for an elite program that would eventually result in a job with the Department of Muggle Monitoring and Technology Integration, the one that Yeong was head of. If they had said and she wasn't allowed to go to Yeong, she would have done something to gain enough attention to bring Yeong to her. There was at least thing that Emmy had learned about herself by starting the Order of Prometheus, and that was how to get attention.

As her grandfather used to say, there was no use in crying over spilled butterbeer. What was in the past, was in the past, and Emmy only had her future to look forward to. Which was considerably brighter than it was five days ago in South Korea. Once her foul mood lessened, she had became very curious about who foiled her plan. She was well aware of who Darren was to Harry and the Ministry, but he alone couldn't have pulled off such a feat. It had taken weeks for Emmy to set everything up, and that was with the help of Ash and Nick. One man alone could not have managed to defeat her plan which included multiple scenarios and back-ups. One man and an entire division of men (and women) was another story entirely.

Her answer came the following day, splashed all over the Prophet. For the first time the Ministry was ahead of the Order of Prometheus and wanted the rest of the country to know about it, give them some good news for a change. It was how Emmy learned about Yeong and his division. It was also why she decided to forego her revenge on them, and just settle with Darren. From what she had read about Yeong, they would have been friends, and she appreciated what the South Koreans were doing. Sure they weren't planning on destroying their version of the Statute of Secrecy any time soon, but they were headed in the right direction, and were much more progressive than Emmy's own Ministry. Meanwhile the Golden Boy (her new nickname for Harry Potter, the man who was in charge of taking down the Order) was staying for the remainder of the Olympics to ensure the Order wouldn't succeed if they bothered to try something else.

After she had her answers and completed her revenge (a rather nasty and complicated curse she had invented and had been waiting for the right person to use it on) she moved onto to planning her next scheme, which would also hopefully be her last.

When she told Ash that she knew the when and not how of it, she hadn't been lying. At the time, the when part was the only thing she did know. May second, also known to the wizarding world as the day Voldemort was finally and truly defeated. It had become an unofficial holiday in the wizarding world in the years since, and her victory would have had much more meaning than her victory at the Olympics would have had. The torch was a symbol of Prometheus's fire and the Order, May second was a symbol of hope for the wizarding world and a cause of celebration. By achieving her ultimate victory on such a date, not only would she conquer the wizarding world physically, but emotionally and mentally as well.

The only downside was that after spending several days locked in her room figuring the logistics of her plan, when she had finally figured out all those pesky little plot holes, she had nobody to share it with. What was the point of coming up with a genius plan if you were unable to share it with anybody who would appreciate your genius?

The day she had her final break through also just so happened to be Valentine's Day, and the two people she wanted to share her genius plan with just so happened to start dating. Emmy was happy that Ash and Nick had finally made things official, but she wasn't happy that they had to do actual couple things like going out on Valentine's Day, especially when she needed somebody to listen to her.

Somebody like Louis. He would listen to her no matter what she was rambling on about. She did watch what she said around him and kept her tong silent on sensitive issues such as her past and everything Order related. Louis and her would get into deep conversations regarding who the better Darren on Bewitched was (Louis found Muggle's interpretation of magic amusing, and was determined to see all the different versions in existence, including TV shows that were made an ocean away and sixty years ago) to whether a wand or a light saber (Emmy had insisted he explored science fiction as well as fantasy) would do better in a battle against Voldemort. A wand could shoot out spells and curses, while a light saber could cut off limbs and behead Death Eaters if one was able to close enough, as well as vaporize Voldemort's wand.

When she was around Louis, Emmy felt lighter, bouncier, more carefree, almost... normal. She hadn't seen him the beginning of January when she left for South Korea, claiming she had just been in the area on winter break. It'd be tricky to explain why she was back in the middle of February with no school breaks in sight, but it would be much better than what she was currently doing now- sitting in her flat, alone, on edge to tell somebody her genius idea.

Telling Louis her genius idea was tempting, but still stupid. What she really needed him for at the moment, was to take advantage of his ability to easily distract her and get her mind off her plan and being unable to tell anybody.

With that decided, she reached for the mobile that belonged to 'Kelly' and was used to get in touch with Louis. Five minutes after sending a message consisting of a simple 'hi' Emmy had a response: Busy. Tomorrow?

Tomorrow? Emmy couldn't wait till tomorrow... she could, but she needed him _now_. Just as she decided to track his geographical location and go see what (or who, she really hoped it wasn't who) was keeping him so busy, Ash and Nick walked into the flat solving her Louis problem.

"Finally. Now who wants to hear about my brilliant and genius plan?"

Ash and Nick traded expressions before resigning to their fate and sitting down on the living room couch. The sooner they appeased and listened to Emmy, the sooner they could get back to themselves.

"Fine," sighed Ash. "Tell us your brilliant and genius plan."

Emmy smiled and began.

****Author's Note****

I'm back! Sorry there was no chapter last week, but it took a while to get internet at my new place. Even if I had it, I don't think I would have been able to update since I had no time to write last week. It's part of the reason this chapter is so short, I've been too busy moving and unpacking things, and getting adjusted to a new job. The good news is I have a good idea of what I want to do next chapter and should get around to writing it this weekend.

For those who did review two weeks ago, I'd like to thank them: Wise Girl16, Son of Whitebeard, and SilverRaven7. Reviews are always nice to receive, and I will respond to signed ones.

Next chapter Emmy's revenge will be revealed, as will her final plan, which took me as much effort to figure out as it did Emmy. I think I've managed to figure out most of the plot holes.

Seroaksan is a national park in the northeastern part of South Korea. It was close to North Korea showing that it could have been a school for the entire country at one point, and is located in a mountainous region, making it a perfect place for a wizarding school.

Thanks again for reading, and if possible review!


	22. Grand Plans

I don't own the rights to Harry Potter. If I did, I wouldn't be writing fanfiction, I'd be writing canon.

**Grand Plans**

"We're going to attack the Ministry of Magic on May second."

Emmy wasted no time in getting straight to the point. She wanted her declaration to have impact, and judging by the flabbergasted looks on Ash's and Nick's faces, she achieved her goal.

Nick was the first to speak after Emmy's bold declaration. "Ash, I think Emmy needs help. Failing South Korea has made her suicidal."

Ash snickered, causing Emmy to direct a glare her way. She had waited all day for this moment, and Ash and Nick were treating it like some sort of prank. Deciding the best course of action was to ignore her friends' antics and continue on with her plan.

"There are only four ways to get inside the Ministry of Magic. The first is apparating which is obviously out of the question. That leaves three other ways- the Floo Network, the visitors' entrance via phone booths, and another workers' entrance by being flushed down underground toilets in Whitehall. These last three are our ways in. Squibs will take the Floo Network, while the Muggles will use the other two entrances.

"We gain two advantages of attacking on May second. The first being the emotional damage we'll inflict by attacking on what it is an unofficial holiday in the wizarding world. The second being the lack of Ministry workers to fight since so many usually take the day off."

Pausing, Emmy let her words sink in. Surely Ash and Nick couldn't find any flaws with her plan now. She was wrong.

"Okay," said Ash tentatively, "I get the whole attacking the Ministry on its weakest day, but what about the wizards who are there? None of us besides you have a wand to fight with."

"And you won't let us use Muggle weapons," added Nick. "Unless you changed your mind?" For one brief second an expression of hope flickered across his face.

"We will use Muggle weapons, just the non-lethal kind- tasers, tear gas, stun guns," explained Emmy.

"Alright, let's say your plan does work, we break into the Ministry and take out the all the wizards. Then what? Just because we have the Ministry, the rest of the wizarding world won't be so eager to bow down before us. The only reason they responded that way to Voldemort was because it was either that or death. What's to keep all the wizards on holiday from storming the Ministry and taking away our victory?" asked Ash.

Emmy smiled, she had anticipated this issue, one of the many little pot holes she had dealt with.

"Our ultimate goal isn't to hold the Ministry, it's to reach Shacklebolt and the Golden Boy. While the day is a cause of celebration for most, to them it's a painful reminder of all the friends and family they lost. They've worked on every single anniversary, and this year shouldn't be any different," stated Emmy.

"What's to keep them from hexing us into oblivion?" asked Nick bluntly.

Out of her entire plan, Emmy thought the next bit was most brilliant. "We threaten to bomb Hogwarts. I'll come forward with a white flag and a message for them that states our leader is waiting for word of our success outside. She has a missile aimed at Hogwarts, if they gave up, she'll call off her missile, if they fight, Hogwarts will get blown to pieces."

A smile was on her face, prepared for the inevitable onslaught of questions from Ash and Nick who didn't fail to disappoint.

It was Ash who spoke first this time. "There are so many problems with that plan. Since when do we have a leader? I agree with Nick on you having suicidal tendencies, why else would you tell Potter and the Minister of the threat? Also, you're forgetting the little fact that Hogwarts is unplottable!"

"Not to mention the missile's guidance system will fry once it reaches the boundaries of Hogwarts, assuming it makes it that far," snorted Nick.

The smile didn't fade from Emmy's face, if possible it spread even wider.

"In answer to your first question, so far nobody besides us three even know who leads the Order, and I doubt a lot of people have questioned it- to them we're just one big faceless organization intent on breaking the Statute of Secrecy. Once we do seize power, we're going to need somebody as a figurehead, even if it's a mysterious figure that's just outside of the Ministry's reach. A figure who will appoint three key figures to oversee the running of the Ministry, while keeping the threat of bombing Hogwarts looming over the wizarding world. To them, the only way out is capturing a person who doesn't exist."

Ash conceded that Emmy had a point. "That does make a certain amount of sense, but a leader does exist, _you_. Doesn't delivering the threat qualify as moronic?"

"Possibly," replied Emmy. "But Ash, for over four years I have dreamed of this moment, of bringing the wizarding world to its knees. I want to be there when it happens, I want to see the desperation in their eyes, I want to be the one to break their wands and spirits." Then, in a quieter voice she added, "After all, they broke mine."

There were parts of Emmy's past that Ash and Nick knew, but most of it was a mystery. The little they did know was that she came from a magical family and something happened. Something happened that had caused her to snap and cut all her ties with the wizarding world and set off on a path to conquer it. As for the details, they didn't know, and had never bothered to ask before, letting their imaginations run wild instead, for it seemed the polite thing to do. Now, they were secretly regretting never asking. The glint that filled Emmy's eyes while she spoke held such bitterness, Ash and Nick wanted to ask what had caused it.

At the moment they settled to ask for the next answer.

"So..." responded Nick, "What about the whole, unplottable thing?"

Emmy brightened up at the question. "Hogwarts is unplottable, but Hogsmeade isn't. It's relatively close to the school, and is enough to give us a starting point. Instead of looking for Hogwarts on a map, we need to be looking for a gap on the map. Yes Hogwarts is unplottable, but it still exists somewhere in Scotland as one huge, mysterious blank spot. Even if we don't know its exact location, if we keep firing missiles, sooner or later one will hit."

"Battleship," exclaimed Nick. "Like one giant game of battleship." Seeing Ash's puzzled look, he explained. "It's a Muggle game played between two people on a grid system. Each person places their ships on the grid, and then calls out possible locations of their opponent's ship, with the goal being you want to sink their ships before they sink yours. Even though you don't know where their ships are, you can narrow it down as the game goes on, and the bigger ships have fewer places to be."

"Never thought of it that way, but Nick's right, it is one giant game of Battleship," agreed Emmy. She had heard of the game, but had never actually played it herself... perhaps she should try it sometime. Then she continued. "As for the navigation, what do you think happens to a missile when all the electronic systems guiding it suddenly die? It falls. The magical interference with electronics that normally protects Hogwarts will doom it. As soon as the missile reaches Hogwarts, it'll fall."

"This is all theoretical though, what you'll tell Harry and Shacklebolt. How do they know you're not bluffing?" Nick asked.

"They don't," answered Emmy, "But since two of Harry's children and a Burrow's worth of Weasleys, I doubt he'd be willing to call my bluff. Same goes for Shacklebolt."

"So this is it then," whispered Ash. "Either this crazy plan works and we succeed, or they call our bluff and we fail... no more second chances."

"Why so grim Ash?" said Nick, wrapping an arm around her. "This is the moment we've been waiting for. Even if we fail to take the Ministry, I promise you, we won't be the losers."

Emmy nodded, agreeing with Nick's optimistic attitude. "Good. Now we just need to discuss training."

* * *

Across the globe, there was at least one person who didn't share Nick and Emmy's optimism.

Ka-thunk.

Ka-thunk.

The sound of a head hitting a wall could be heard down the hallway. Most people in the building had grown accustomed to the noise since it had started over an hour ago.

Ka-thunk.

Then, it was suddenly ended.

"Darren, I know you're upset, but giving yourself a concussion is not going to change things."

Darren, the source of the ka-thunking noise, moaned. "Harry, you don't get it. This," he said as he waved a hand referring to the electronics in the room, "Is what I do, it's who I am. You heard Yeong, the curse comes internally from the system, so the shielding charms don't affect it. I'm doomed, my career is over."

Ka-thunk.

Ka-thunk.

Harry pulled Darren's head back. "Yeong and his men are trying to break the curse; if anybody can do so, it's them."

The curse in question, was something that neither Harry nor any of his fellow wizards had seen before. Well, they had, just not affecting one singular person. Every time Darren tried to operate an electrical device- computer, laptop, mobile, even the light switch- it would short-circuit and start smoking. While such a curse might upset the typical Muggle, it devastated Darren.

"Sure we stopped them, but I can't believe they would do this after what I did..."

Harry clapped Darren on the back trying to sooth him. "Just because you can't use a computer at the moment, doesn't mean that you're useless. While we're waiting for Yeong to break the curse, how about you show my Aurors what to do and how to use computers?"

A chuckle escaped from Darren. "Show them what to do? That's like showing a toddler how to perform open heart surgery."

Shrugging, Harry responded, "You'll have to start somewhere. Especially if you want to head the new Department of Muggle Monitoring and Technology Integration. Once we're back home, we won't have Yeong and his men to help us with the Order's electronic attacks. It'll be just you, and whoever you train."

"Not even thirty and heading my own Department at the Ministry. My parents will be so proud once they get over the shock."

****Author's Note****

I'd like to thank Mryna Maeve, noonface, Son of Whitebeard, and LizziePixie-Aiko for reviews. Reviews brighten my days considerably.

Emmy's plan is rather ambitious and crazy. She (and I) are tired of doing little things, and think it's time for the Order to go for it with everything they have. There will be some more team bonding/training coming up, some more Harry, some more Darren, and some more Louis. Ideally, there's going to be a few more chapters, the attack on the Ministry, and a couple chapters after, including one with all of Emmy's background.

That's all for now, and if possible, please leave a review!


	23. Just Another Average, Ordinary Day

I do not own the rights to Harry Potter. If I did, it'd be possible to have a Pokemon as an Animagus form and patronus.

**Just Another Average, Ordinary Day**

The hardest part about being in South Korea, mused Harry, was being away from his family for three weeks. He could still Owl Ginny, talk to her via a fireplace, but it wasn't the same as physically being with. Apparating was an option, but with his luck, the second he left would be the second the Order decided to do something catastrophic, and by the time he returned it could be too late. Ginny could have apparated to South Korea, but with the Quidditch World Cup play-offs starting (with the Weasley version following soon after), she was swamped with keeping up with all the matches.

When he was younger, going off for three weeks to a foreign country, away from his friends and family was nothing, especially compared to some of his other adventures. He would have jumped at the chance when he lived with the Dursley's. That was then. Now he has a wife, children, and more family than he could count. Harry even missed all the noise and chaos from his many nieces and nephews and other extended family dropping by, something he never thought was possible.

There was one bright spot in his trip, he had finally managed to get ahead of the Order, and stop one of their plans. According to Darren and Yeong, if the Order had succeeded, the International Statute of Secrecy- a combination of over a hundred different Statutes from Ministries of Magic around the world. Convincing the Muggles that the video wasn't real would have been enough of a headache, but dealing with the international community would have been a nightmare.

There were still hard feelings among the international community that the Ministry hadn't reached out to their international counterparts for help with Voldemort, and Fudge ignoring him as a threat for several years- what if Great Britain wouldn't have been enough for him? What if he had decided to turn his eyes elsewhere in the world? Shacklebolt was already being bombarded by owls from foreign Ministries requesting 'international cooperating'. Harry hadn't minded working with Yeong and the South Koreans; it was so far proving to be an interesting learning experience. Upon meeting Harry, Yeong had acknowledged that Harry would have the lead with all things Order-related. That type of international cooperating Harry was fine with, it was the cooperating the other foreign Ministries had in mind that worried Harry. He had spent so many hours working on Order-related cases, he would have a hard time sharing it with foreign Aurors.

It would also mean turning over all his information regarding Operation Zeus. Only two people knew the full details, with four others being aware of its existence. Having to inform others of its details could put the entire Operation in jeopardy, and Harry could lose what little advantage he had over the Order. The success of the Opening Ceremony at the Winter Olympics was enough proof to Harry that the Operation was worth all the man-hours and overtime going into it. It had yet to reveal who the true leader of the Order was- which had moved to one of Harry's highest priorities, once the leader was captured, he was confident the rest of the Order would fall- but it had revealed several possible leads. With more time, Harry was positive one of the leads would prove fruitful.

In order to preserve Operation Zeus, it was imperative the rest of Olympic Games passed without incident. Harry was currently a man down with Darren's curse, but a small part of him was actually glad it happened; he hadn't realized just how much he had come to rely on Darren in the past months. Not just for combating the Order on a electronic level, but for also causing Harry to become aware of a gap between what wizards think Muggles are capable of, and what they actually are capable of. If the Order hadn't come along when they did, Harry believed that Muggles would have discovered the existence of magic in a couple more years; the footage of wizards performing magic in public when they thought no Muggles were watching was astonishing and scary. Now aware of the hazard Muggle technology posed to exposing the magical world, Harry could place preventive measures with Darren's help, before it was too late.

Another positive aspect of Darren's curse, was it forced him to become a leader. Before the curse, he had a hard time sharing his computer, laptop, mobile, etc.. with anyone else, including wizards who were genuinely interested in learning how to operate them. He had no problem explaining how to work them, or showing off what they could, but the very mention of the possibility another person might touch them would cause him to launch into a tantrum. 'I see how it is, I'm being replaced' or 'You think I'm going to trust some wizard with my babies' or the classic, 'Over my dead body'. Harry and his fellow Aurors had finally given up asking.

While the curse prevented Darren from dealing with electronics hands-on, it didn't stop him from teaching others how to deal with them hands-on. Darren was learning how to become the leader Harry needed him to be to head the new department, and the Aurors were picking up skills from Darren and even some of Yeong's men. Of course, now that Darren had gotten over his sharing issues and his depression over the curse, his new issue was becoming mad with power. Harry liked it better than depressed Darren, at least mad with power Darren got things done and wasn't destroying the South Korean's property or his head.

Darren taking over the Aurors for a bit gave Harry the chance to catch up on his work that wasn't Order-related, like the suspected break-in at Hogwarts. The magical book and quill still hadn't surfaced, and Flitwick was starting to worry about the incoming students for next year, especially Muggleborns. Only the book and quill knew who was a Muggleborn and who was a Muggle, and their location. There was still plenty of time between now and the next school year to contact the Muggleborns with birthdays that had passed, but if the book and quill weren't found before then... well another year of Muggleborns would be behind, just like they were twenty years ago.

The bigger problem was who had the book and quill, and why. That still wasn't clear, and the Aurors hardly had any time to conduct a proper investigation. Several weeks had passed between the suspected date of the theft and the actual discovery of the theft, and several more passed before Harry was able to perform a proper investigation. By then, any of the evidence that the culprits had left behind, was gone. Even tracking and tracing spells had been useless at finding any clues.

Finally, there was a new problem at hand. Harry had yet to read the complete report, but from what he had skimmed, the Muggle Minister had requested the Minister of Magic's help with solving some Muggle crimes. One more case to work on.

Some days he wondered if his life would be simpler if he had been sorted into another house such as Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw. One that didn't require him to have his Gryffindor bravery, which had so often gotten him into trouble and danger. Perhaps his life would be less chaotic and stressful. Then again, life wouldn't be the same without a little chaos every once in a while.

Just another average day in the life of Harry Potter.

* * *

Emmy's perfect plan wasn't so perfect after all.

Tasers, she had learned since her grand explanation, were actually illegal in the United Kingdom. She had never needed one, and while her knowledge about Muggle technology was vast, her knowledge about Muggle weapons' laws was non-existent.

The legality of her situation didn't bother her, by now she had broken so many laws- Muggle and wizard- she didn't care. What she did care about was how much harder it would be to acquire some. Other options included shotguns with riot rounds (bean bags) and even Dragon's Breath (a shotgun round that acts similar to a fire-breathing dragon). Both would be highly effective against wizards, and the Dragon's Breath might even fool some into believing a dragon had infiltrated the Ministry. The thought of a Muggle weapon parodying a magical creature and sending wizards running away in terror delighted Emmy.

While she did have alternatives that would prove just as effective and she planned on using, she still wanted some tasers. She didn't need them, she _wanted_ them. As a child she had questioned her parents whenever they told her she couldn't have something, which of course made her want it all that more. There was something that was so attractive about having something Emmy wasn't allowed to have or do; she got a rush every time she did managed to succeed despite it being against the rules. A rush that had been plentiful in the past couple of months.

Wanting to possess tasers was insignificant in the long run and potentially dangerous. If she was caught, the entire mission of the Order would be in jeopardy, and all of her work would have been wasted.

Except Emmy knew where she could pick up some tasers, Dragon's Breath and other things. Karma was something Emmy had never believed in, but she did find it interesting that choosing the moral thing had presented the current opportunity.

Over a month ago she had decided to report some illicit activity she had noticed on video while performing some illicit activity of her own. It had taken her several attempts at contact, but once the person she had sent the footage to believed it was real and the Order wasn't up to anything, he had passed it onto the authorities. The authorities in turn had followed through on the lead, and had started to stake-out the warehouse location and gather evidence to take down the organization and its leader for good.

Emmy's person had been sending her regular updates, hoping to trick her into revealing some evidence he could use against her. She was careful about how she responded, not wanting her one good deed to lead to her downfall. His updates had stopped once she cursed him (in the time since she had recognized as it being a bit mean, but he was too smart for his own good. Emmy promised to make it up to him once she was in power by giving him his own department).

However, Emmy knew by now how to find her own updates, including one of notable interest. The organization had received another shipment, and several undercover agents had acquired an inventory list which mentioned Dragon's Breath and tasers, among other items.

So now that Emmy knew where she could pick up all the supplies she could ever dream of and more, she just needed to come up with a plan or two. A plan to distract the agents who were undercover from discovering, questioning, and arresting her; a plan to distract members of the organization from discovering, questioning, and killing her...

Some might be intimidated by such a challenge, but Emmy loved planning, even when her plans had holes in them- they were a learning experience, a how-to of what not to do later. Besting those challenges gave Emmy just as much of a thrill as doing things she wasn't supposed to; probably even more so since it meant more than likely outwitting somebody, and shoving it in their face.

It was just another average day in Emmy's life.

****Author's Note****

The last chapter received five reviews, which is awesome. A huge thanks goes to Gespenster Jager for informing me that tasers are illegal in he U.K.- the one thing I would have never thought to look up- and giving me some other options for Emmy, and I've incorporated it into the story. I'd also like to thank Myrna Maeve, SilverRaven7, Guest, and Russianbear0027 for reviews as well.

Since Guest and Russianbear0027 were anonymous, I wasn't able to respond with a PM. Guest, the only wizards who need to know what a missile is, are Harry and Shacklebolt since they'll be the ones who'll receive Emmy's message. Harry grew up in the Muggle world and learned at least some Muggle history, so he should know what a missile is. As for Shacklebolt, he doesn't seem as incompetent as Fudge, and if he didn't know what a missile was before, he probably does now. Once it became clear that the Order was using Muggle means to attack the wizarding world, he probably did as much research as he could regarding Muggle weapons and what wizards could potentially be facing. That's not to say he knows everything to prevent an attack, but he knows what Muggles are capable of. Russianbear0027, thank you for the compliments, I worry a lot about how well thought out my ideas are.

Just a reminder, I will respond to signed reviews, and if you don't sign I'll respond here.

Next chapter will feature Emmy picking up her supplies, and learning how to improv.

That's all for now, thanks for reading, and if possible, please leave a review!


	24. Much Needed Distractions

I do not own the rights to Harry Potter. If I did, I would explain more about the day to day details regarding wizarding life. Like plumbing fixtures.

**Much Needed Distractions**

Two weeks passed before Emmy was ready to pick up her supplies. In those two weeks she had been monitoring the organization and had learned their name was The Knights of Camelot, or KoC. Emmy had spent a good five minutes laughing at the name, since as a wizard, she knew the truth behind Merlin, King Arthur, and his Knights of the Round Table. The legends surrounding them were far more romantic and nobler than the truth.

The leader of the KoC was a man by the name of Erik Williams. Before, Emmy could have cared less at the time who their leader was, and what they called themselves, she was more concerned with what she should do with her discovery. Considering that she was about to breach their security and acquire several items from them, it seemed prudent to learn as much information about them as possible. She had made the mistake of blindly walking into a situation thinking she knew everything in South Korea. It was a lesson she didn't want to have to learn more than once.

And so she learned everything she could about the KoC. Their past actions, known members, the comings and goings of the warehouse, and read all the information Interpol had gathered on them. In addition, she studied the authorities who were also studying the KoC. Due to her tipping them off, the warehouse was now under 24 hour surveillance. Not only would she have to sneak into the warehouse and avoid alerting the KoC, she would also have to sneak past the surveillance team. Their cameras and electronics she could handle, it was the people monitoring them that might cause issue.

Her solution was a distraction aimed at both groups- something that would hold their attention for several minutes, something that was unexplained and could be a threat, but might not necessarily attract unwanted attention from the Ministry- a UFO.

Most UFO's, especially those in the American Southwest could be attributed to wizards and spells/magical artifacts gone awry. The Rosewell incident was actually caused by a group of students from the nearby Western School for Witchcraft and Wizardry (located in Area 51) who were celebrating their Quidditch win over their rivals from Salem. Muggles jumped to the conclusion of aliens, and magical authorities around the world were more than happy to indulge their delusions, even developing 'cover-ups' to convince Muggles that what their governments were really hiding was evidence of extraterrestrial beings, not magical ones.

While the majority of incidents were actually the work of wizards, there were some that couldn't be explained by even them. One theory was wizards were actually descended from, or received their powers from other-wordly beings who would stop by Earth to check up on them occasionally. The more popular and more accepted theory was that the unexplained incidents were just the displays of natural magic, similar to the Aurora Borealis or Northern Lights.

Emmy didn't have any theories of her own, just that people (Muggles and magical) were attracted to unexplained phenomenon and let their guard down as to what was going on around them. For her distraction, Emmy wasn't planning on using magic-she didn't need the Ministry deciding to investigate- she was planning on using one of her experiments. The same one that Nick had dismissed several months ago- her hologram.

By setting up on a rooftop several buildings away, Emmy could aim her projection to appear in the air between the warehouse and the surveillance team. She gave it an ambiguous design, a murky oval shape with several multicolored lights that moved. Enough to get their attention and couldn't be explained immediately, if ever. As far as Emmy knew, holograms had never been a theory to explain UFO's.

She would have loved for Nick and Ash to be with her, to shove the success of her project in their faces. Before she could tell them of her plans, they left for a week, claiming 'family issues'. Emmy interpreted that to mean 'relationship issues'. At first she was miffed at their absence. Then she realized if she managed to succeed without them, she could prove to them (and herself) that South Korea was a one-time thing, and with the proper planning, her plans could succeed. Therefore, as long as she put in the proper research, her plan for attacking the Ministry could succeed as well. One more thing to shove into their faces once they returned.

Her plan was working beautifully. It took several minutes longer than she planned to get the hologram to appear visible in the dark sky. A couple of tweaks to the brightness and contrast levels, as well as moving the image closer to an overhead light. Several minutes later, the surveillance team and the KoC were outside, puzzled over the sight before them. With their attention occupied elsewhere, Emmy was able to slip past them and into the warehouse unnoticed.

The part where it went south was when she heard a voice from behind her say, "Who are you and what are you doing here?"

* * *

There were some benefits to Darren's curse. Family and friends who knew of the situation felt sorry for him. Since there was nothing they could technically do, they expressed their feelings in other ways. Ever since he returned home from South Korea, his mother had been bringing over delicious dinners and sweets-to the dismay of his brothers and father- every night. His male co-workers found ways to give him money- losing bets and wages Darren never made, paying back money they really didn't owe him- their way of making him feel better. His female workers would pity him, thinking of how they would react to not being able to do the one thing they loved most. They would flirt with him, stroke his ego, hang onto his every word.

From others he was seen as a martyr, grievously wronged and injured by that dastardly Order, sacrificing himself for the greater good. Before the curse most Ministry employees saw him as the Squib, Tremlett's son who was forced to dabble with Muggle things. After he was seen as a hero, his dabbling was serious enough of a threat for the Order to attack him directly with a curse. The wizards may not have understood exactly what it was he did, but it must be very important to warrant such an attack, and as such treated him accordingly.

Darren was lapping it up. Less than a day after being back home, he was telling attentive listeners a sob story about how he was corned and beaten in some dark alley, and despite their threats he refused to give into their demands, and was now paying a high price. He would dab at tears forming from the corners of her eyes, and his listeners would comment on how brave he was.

While he did want his old life back, his life at the moment wasn't that bad. Perhaps what hurt the most about the curse was the feel of betrayal by the Order.

An insane idea after everything they had done so far and proclaiming that they were going to break the Statute of Secrecy. Except, they had also done some good. When Darren read the anonymous e-mail back in January containing the video footage on the KoC with the message, "It's legit and not us. Send it to the right people" he thought it was joke. Who was 'us' and what was the deal with the video?

Then he started to analyze the video and realized it was the KoC. He hadn't known much about them at the time, but a couple inquiries later, he knew all that he wanted to. The next question was, who had sent it? Trying to trace the e-mail proved to be fruitless, he lost it somewhere in Asia. Which was odd, since that hadn't happened to him in a while, not since that time...

That's when he had the light-bulb moment. The last time he had lost a trace was back in September when the Order had hijacked the trains, which was how he got involved with the Ministry in the first place. The Order would explain how he lost the trace and the message 'not us'. Somehow they had stumbled across the footage and had forwarded it to him, to forward it to the 'right people'. They either did a good deed for once, or it was a trap.

Darren suspected it was a trap. When he reported it to Harry, Harry thought it was a trap, and even the Minister thought it was a trap. But it wasn't. Aurors had investigated the warehouse that was shown, and found that the footage was accurate. When the Aurors weren't attacked in the process of investigating the warehouse, it finally occurred to Darren, Harry, and Shacklebolt that perhaps the alternative theory was true, that perhaps the Order was actually doing the right thing. This theory was confirmed by Operation Zeus.

From there, the 'right people' where contacted and another e-mail showed up with one word: thanks. This one, Darren was able to respond to. Harry instructed him to respond with updates periodically, to see if the person at the other end would let something slip in the e-mail about their identity or plans. That never happened of course, but Darren did hope that with each e-mail that whomever was at the other end was just a little closer to doing another right thing-turning themselves in. He had hinted it at several times, that the Ministry would protect them if they would turn on the Order and their leader. Despite his best efforts, the response was always, 'thanks, but not interested'.

After the curse had happened, he had tried to send e-mails to the address (or at least Harry had with Darren's instructions of what to type), demanding the curse be called off. All he got was an automated response that the e-mail was not a valid address. Whatever progress he had made, was now gone for good. Feeling betrayed, he eventually gave up. Worse, he had actually grown to like the person at the other end of the e-mail. Sure they were working for an Order intent on exposing the wizarding world to Muggles, but they were on his level with electronics, got his geeky sense of humor. He rationalized that perhaps it was against their will, or maybe they didn't know the extent of what they were doing.

South Korea changed all that. Darren had no doubt that the person responsible for the e-mails was the same one responsible for the attack on the Opening Ceremony at the Winter Olympics in South Korea. Then the curse happened. Harry said it showed the Order had at least one wizard on their side, which was valuable information. Valuable information that Darren could have gone without knowing.

His thoughts were interrupted by a knock at the door. To his surprise, the Minister of Magic himself, Kingsley Shacklebolt, was standing in front of the door to Darren's new office.

"I cannot honestly say I'm sorry for the circumstances that have brought you here. In the past six months I have learned more about Muggles than I ever knew, and have come to realize that my predecessors made grave errors in underestimating them. Their lack of magic has forced them to become very resourceful. Did you know that part of the Ministry was actually bombed during the Muggle's World War II? Ministry officials wrongly attributed it to Grindelwald, they were so sure that the Muggle's little war could never affect them."

"Uh..."

Never before in his life had Darren been star-struck, growing up with a famous father had ensured that. When others would look at his father and see a star, or even a god before them, Darren would just see the guy who would play him songs to get him asleep at night. Even Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived, hadn't fazed Darren. Average height, thin, glasses-Harry Potter wasn't an imposing figure. Even the air about him was causal, relaxed, non-threatening. If Darren hadn't known his name, Darren wouldn't have looked twice at him.

The man in front of him was a different story. Kingsley Shacklebolt was built like a giant with his height and muscles. Unlike Harry, the air about him was strong, authoritative, inspired respect in those around him. Darren even had the urge to call him 'sir', something he had never done before in his life. It was an odd feeling, and Darren understood why Shacklebolt had run unopposed for over 18 years as minister, why he was said to be the best Minister in over a hundred years.

"I was thinking it was about time for me to buy a mobile and have an e-mail; depending on a portrait to communicate with the Muggle Prime Minister is not the smartest nor the fastest means of communication these days. I know your curse prevents you from directly interacting with electronics, but surely you can still give me some advice?"

Darren nodded his head. Then he launched into a one hour discussion with the Minister of Magic discussing what brand of mobile to buy, the benefits of a touch screen mobile versus one with a keyboard (including what it is), and what sort of data plan he would need. By standing behind him, Darren teaches the Minister basic computer skills, including e-mail. Fighting the urge to take the keyboard and mouse away from Shacklebolt when he messed something up was hard for Darren. Sharing with others has never been one of Darren's strong points. For the imposing figure of the Minister of Magic, he's willing to try.

Especially if it provides a much needed distraction from his depressing thoughts.

****Author's Note****

As you've noticed, this was posted Sunday and not Thursday. While having a real-world job is nice, part of it requires me to go out of town occasionally for work, which happened Thursday. I got home much later than I thought I would and realized that finishing the chapter that day wouldn't be possible. Not only that, but there's a chance I'll be going out of town again on later Thursdays this month, and perhaps even spending several days in a row out of town. In addition, I feel like the past couple chapters haven't been the best since I've been writing them after I get off of work and am very tired. Moving the updates to Sundays solve both of these problems.

With that out of the way, I'd like to thank Guess, LizziePixie-Aiko, and Son of Whitebeard for reviewing last chapter. Hopefully the second part of this chapter cleared up your questions Guest. As for the Order knowing that Harry knows what a missile is, the fact that he grew up with Muggles isn't a huge secret. Emmy figures if he lived with them till he was 11, and every following summer until he was 17, he would know about Muggle technology. Perhaps not as much as Emmy, but still more than the average wizard. As for Shacklebolt, ever since he realized that Muggles could be a potential threat to wizards, he's been reading up on what Muggles are capable of, as demonstrated in his knowledge that the Ministry dismissed the London bombings as Grindelwald's work.

Regarding the Area 51/wizard school theory, I read the theory online a couple weeks ago, and liked it, so I thought I would include it somehow.

Next chapter will be updated next Sunday, and will conclude Emmy's adventures with the KoC.

Thanks for reading and sticking with the story, and if possible, leave a review!


	25. Wanting to Change the Future

I do not own the rights to Harry Potter. If I did, I'd expand more on Diagon Alley. Where do all the workers live? Not every wizard could be expected to have a huge tract of land in the middle of nowhere.

**Wanting to Change the Future**

Emmy did her best to keep calm. She took deep breaths, and hoped it would quiet her rapidly beating heart. It didn't.

"Well?" asked the voice, after Emmy hadn't responded.

While her heart was still beating fast, Emmy kept her face calm and turned around to see who the voice belonged to. In recognition of the figure before her, Emmy was proud she managed to keep in a gasp from escaping her lips. However, she couldn't stop her eyes from widening in shock.

Erik Williams, the head of KoC, had caught Emmy like a mouse in a trap. He also picked up on her shocked expression.

"What? Wasn't planning on being discovered?"

Her caught-in-the-headlights expression is quickly replaced by one of contempt. Of course she wasn't planning on being caught. That didn't mean Emmy was completely unprepared, she had learned from her South Korean mistake. The odds of her hologram completely distracting all of the Muggles present, for all the time she was going to spend acquiring her new possessions, _and_ without one single Muggle realizing that it was a distraction were slim to none. As a result she had come up with a story. The one thing that she hadn't expected was having to tell it the KoC's leader.

Oh well, one more bragging point to her exciting adventure- if she succeeded.

"My name's Alice. I'm from the Order of Prometheus."

He sneered. "The Order of Prometheus? You mean that little group that pulled the stunt with the trains?"

Little group? The words were ringing in her ears. _Little group?_ Then a thought broke through her anger- he was a Muggle. All Muggles knew was, as Erik had so eloquently put, the 'train stunt', and then the Manifesto. The rest of the Order's activity- the Gringott's break-in, true extent of the 'train stunt', breaking the Statute of Secrecy- was unknown.

She could boast about the Order's other exploits, claim they were covered up by the government- which in a way was true. Or she could play to William's ego which he was known for having, according to his files at least.

"That's why I'm here sir, to acquire items to aid us in our quest," replied Emmy. It seemed almost futile to hope Williams would swallow the lie- he was vain, but not that dumb. If he was, he wouldn't have lasted as long as he had.

"And by 'acquire', you mean steal?" he replied, confirming Emmy's suspicions. Vain, but smart- a bad combination, and one that Emmy was very familiar with.

"Well," said Emmy, hoping her response wouldn't result in her death- it'd be a shame after everything she had been through, to die in a warehouse because of a Muggle. She hadn't even brought her wand along with her, thinking she wouldn't need it. Although, even if she had brought it, a bullet could end her life faster than she could say the words for a spell. Then again, perhaps she was overreacting, if he was going to kill, wouldn't he have done it already?

"Well," she repeated, and a wide smirk appeared on his face. He had known she was hiding something, and was waiting for her to reveal it as her previous story fell apart. The previous lie she was going to tell, had prepared to tell, slipped from her mind. The story about the Order needing help and guidance, sneaking into the warehouse to meet with KoC members to acquire supplies for a big attack, wasn't going to be believed. She had thought it'd more likely to be discovered by an underling, one who wasn't as smart as his leader.

Then she remembered something that the conman she had hired for the first round of training: "If you're ever caught by a person who thinks you're up to no good, the best thing is to confirm their suspicions. There's no point in denying it, but you can at least conceal your true intentions with a lie. It'll leave them feeling satisfied, and not discovering the actual truth."

In this case, Emmy needed to conceal the fact that she was the leader of the Order. It wasn't for security purposes; if Williams discovered that a teenage girl was in charge, he wouldn't take her seriously. Maybe that was the key. She was a teenage girl, wandering around a warehouse full of illicit goods belonging to a group of criminals, by herself, and belonged to her own group of criminals. Confessing that she was the leader who wanted to prove herself to her doubting members by acquiring weapons all by herself, was not an option, but what if it was just the first part she had to avoid?

For the final time she said, "Well," and then looked at the dirty concrete floor in shame. "Our boss, Prometheus, was talking about needing to do something big to show everybody we were serious, and I said we should do something like the Knights. Everybody laughed at me and said it wasn't possible to do something like the Knights, so I wanted to prove them wrong."

"By stealing some of my goods," finished Williams. Emmy didn't dare raise her head to face him; she was suppose to be a remorseful, scared, teenager who wanted to prove herself to her cause and had gotten caught.

"Tell me, how did you discover this place, Alice?" asked Williams, not giving a hint whether or not he had believed her.

"Some of the other members worked their way into the camera system. It was my job to look over some footage for any dirt we could use on important peoples."

The only lie she had spoken concerned who truly 'worked' their way into the city's camera system. Other than that, the rest was the complete truth.

"I take it you found something. Did you tell anybody else of your discovery?"

Emmy shook her head. " Of course not. I wanted to show to them what I could do."

Once again, the first part was the only one that was false, she had told one person of her discovery. Except she hadn't told anybody about that night's planned excursion and she was starting to wonder if it was a mistake. It really wasn't fair, she had tried so hard to plan for every little detail, every possible thing that could go wrong, and now she was in a situation that she thought she had been prepared for, but really wasn't.

Williams chuckled, something that Emmy hadn't expected, and finally caused her to look up. "Ambition, an admirable trait in one so young. I'll make you a deal. Take whatever you can carry, and in return let me know when you're going to use it. Even if you don't succeed, my organization could still take advantage of the distraction."

There it was. When he had told her he was letting her go with everything she could carry, Emmy had wondered what the catch was. All Williams wanted in return was to take advantage of the Order. Of course, it was the wizard Ministry and not the Muggle one Order was going after, but Williams didn't need to know that, and at the moment, she was willing to promise nearly anything.

"Thanks," replied Emmy.

A smile appeared on William's face, and for the first time Emmy knew how others felt when she wore a similar Cheshire Cat grin. While a smile usually suggested kindness and happiness, this one suggested something more sinister. Emmy was left with a creepy feeling in the pit of her stomach, as if she was looking into a mirror of some sort, seeing who she really was for the first time. Emmy didn't like it in the least.

"So we have a deal then? Weapons for a little bit of information?" Williams then stuck out his hand for them to shake on.

"Deal," replied Emmy. Shaking his hand made Emmy feel even slimier, but at the moment, she would have faced a dementor if it meant leaving the warehouse and never seeing Williams and his creepy smile again. The weapons were just a bonus.

* * *

As the sun began to set, a figure made its way along Diagon Alley. Given the time of night, Diagon Alley was still well crowded with people finishing last minute shopping or getting some dinner. The figure wasn't intent on buying anything though, and continued to make his way through the maze of streets that made up the Alley.

Eventually, he found what he was looking for- a tall yellow building called "Fortuna's Flats". The building housed flats for middle-class wizards who worked in Diagon Alley. Over the years, the younger generation of wizards had started moving closer and closer to the cities, rather than living in mansions or estates like their parents and grandparents. As a result, more and more buildings in Diagon Alley had been converted into flats for new tenants.

The figure opened the door and walked up the carpeted stairs, before finally stopping at a door labeled '2B'. It raised one hand tentatively, unsure of whether or not it was going to actually knock on the door. A few more seconds of hesitation passed before the figure finally summoned the courage to act.

Opening the door, was one Bradley Swick.

"Devin?" he asked, his voice full of surprise.

"Can we talk?" asked the figure, otherwise known as Devin Swick, the youngest of the Swick brothers.

* * *

It took three hours for Emmy to shake the tail Williams sent after her, clearly he had trust issues. This was further evident by the GPS tracking chips she had found in the box of goods she managed to get away with. Thankfully, the hologram was still doing its job and Emmy was able to escape without further notice once she turned off the hologram.

The next day since Ash and Nick were still dealing with 'family issues', Emmy hung out with Louis. Despite agreeing to hanging out with him on the 15th, he had to cancel and with her KoC plan in the works, she hadn't been able to respond back.

After seeing her potential self the other day, she was determined to not end up like Williams. Besides vanity and brains, his file also listed him as having a ruthless ambition who showed no loyalty toward the people under him. Once they were no longer needed or had proven useless, they were disposed. It was probably the reason why he had rewarded Emmy instead of punishing her. She had even found a note-in addition to the tracking devices- in the box, telling her to contact him once she was older, since she had shown promise.

While Emmy was ambitious, she didn't want to be the type of leader who could just get rid of her followers once they had fulfilled their use. She didn't want to be the type of person who could so easily dismiss others, who held themselves above everybody else. That was type of person Voldemort was, and she definitely better than Voldemort. She didn't dismiss Muggles, she didn't go around and commit mass murder, and she most certainly was better than him. He ruled through fear, while Emmy wanted to rule through respect. The wizarding world may fear her now, but once she was in charge, she'd show them a better way of life and they'd be grateful. An era of peace between Muggles and wizards would start, unlike any other age.

At least, that's what she had been telling herself lately, to stave off the doubts and fears that had begun eating away at her ever since South Korea.

Above everything though, she didn't want to be alone. She had been alone for so long until she met Ash, Nick, and Louis. Emmy hadn't even known how alone she felt until she had met them, and it was a feeling she didn't want to experience ever again.

The day with Louis went like any other. They met near the entrance to the Leaky Cauldron, walked along the streets, saw some sort of show, had lunch, talked, did more walking before parting ways at the Leaky Cauldron.

Then something very unexpected happened. As Emmy waved goodbye to Louis who was about to enter the Cauldron, Ash and Nick walked out. They were so busy chatting among themselves, they didn't notice Louis as he went by them. Most of all, they didn't notice Emmy's hurt expression as she flattened herself against the door of the shop next door, watching them as they walked away.

****Author's Note****

I'd like to give a big thanks to Son of Whitebeard, my only reviewer last chapter. I know changing the update day unexpectedly might throw some readers off, but hopefully readers are still finding this story. For those who are, reviews are always appreciated.

So... more plots lines teased in this chapter, and more to be tied up by the end. Speaking of the end, I'm aiming for the end of October.

Thanks for reading, and if possible, please review!


	26. Trios

I do not own the rights to Harry Potter. If I did, the epilogue would be longer.

**Trios**

"As you can see here, it's going to be-"

Click.

"-was found alive, but unconscious, bringing the total-"

Click.

"What a deal! You can have all this, only for-"

Click.

"We are the knights who-"

Click.

"Just pick a channel all ready!" cried Nick.

Emmy's reply was chucking the remote at Nick, hitting him in the chest. "Hey! What was that for?"

When Emmy still didn't answer, Ash looked up from the book she was reading. "What's wrong with you? Ever since we've returned, you've been mopier than Moaning Myrtle."

"Who?" asked Nick as he rubbed his chest gingerly. He debated whether or not the remote left a bruise.

"Moaning Myrtle, ghost who haunts the girls' bathrooms at Hogwarts," replied Ash. "And you still haven't answered the question, Emmy."

Crossing her arms, Emmy glared at Ash and Nick. "You lied to me. I saw you two coming out of the Leaky Cauldron a day before you were suppose to be back in London."

Ash and Nick traded quick, conspiratorial glances. A sigh escaped from Ash's mouth. "Emmy, we didn't lie, not exactly. I had some stuff to pick up from home, and I showed Nick where I lived and he met my parents. Since I'm a Squib, having a Muggle as a son-in-law is not as big as a deal than if I were a witch."

"And since my brother is a wizard, they didn't have to worry about Ash breaking the Statute of Secrecy," added Nick.

Tilting her head thoughtfully, Ash said, "Actually, they were quite pleased with Nick having a Muggle-born wizard in the family. If we were to get married and have kids, they could possibly inherit magic from both sides of the family."

"So see, we never lied to you, family was involved," pointed out Nick.

"So why didn't you tell me the truth from the start?" asked Emmy, who was still pouting. She had yet to uncross her arms or wipe the glare from her face. She was even sitting lower in her green armchair, the fluffy pillows on either side nearly engulfing her completely.

"Because we didn't want you to feel left out," responded Ash. "We didn't want you to feel like a third beater." A puzzled look crossed Nick's face at the last line, until he realized that a third beater was the wizard equivalent of a third wheel.

Meanwhile, Emmy had sat up a little straighter in her chair, putting herself on top of the fat pillows. "And the Leaky Cauldron?"

"We used Floo Powder to get there and back. Once we got back, we visited Nick's family."

That did agree with the footage from Argus. If Ash and Nick had lied to her, Emmy had been ready to confront them with the evidence from the Eyes of Argus. Curious as to what else they could be lying about, Emmy had run their faces through Argus's facial recognition software to see what would come up for the past week. The results showed them going into the Leaky Cauldron about a week ago, and finally exiting on the day Emmy saw them. From there they had gotten on the tube and visited a neighborhood outside London, before returning the next day to the flat.

One more question crossed Emmy's mind. "Wait, aren't you two suppose to be at school?"

"Spring break," replied Nick.

Feeling like a fool for being suspicious, Emmy nodded. Their story made sense, and Emmy knew as a couple they would have to start doing couple things like meeting each other's parents, but that still didn't make it hurt any less. She was so used to it just being Emmy, Nick, and Ash, that the idea of just Ash and Nick felt like a stake through the heart. In that moment, the possibility of ending up alone seemed so much more real than ever before.

As if she sensed what Emmy was thinking, Ash stood up and sat on the arm of Emmy's chair. She put her hand into Emmy's and said, "Just because we're together, doesn't mean we've stopped being your friend too."

"I know that," muttered Emmy. Hearing Ash say the words was still comforting,

Then it was Ash's turn to ask a question. "What were you doing by the Leaky Cauldron anyway? Ever since breaking into the Prophet, you've tried to stay away from Diagon Alley as much as possible."

Emmy squirmed in her chair. She had yet to tell Ash and Nick of her friendship with Louis. Every time she was with him, Nick and Ash had been away, or just too busy with each other to notice Emmy's absence. Emmy was well aware of Ash's disgust with Louis based on their first meeting, adding to the list of reasons for not telling them about Louis.

"I have friends..." responded Emmy. It wasn't too convincing for Nick couldn't suppress a laugh, and Ash rolled her eyes.

"Like who?" she asked.

It looked like the time for keeping Louis a secret was over. "Like Louis Longbottom."

Nick's laughter filled the room, and Ash was aghast. "Louis? You're seeing _Louis Longbottom_?"

Shrugging nonchalantly, Emmy nodded. "He's not that bad once you get to know him. We ran into each other over the Holidays."

"Oh Emmy, I know we've been leaving you alone a lot, but to think it made you desperate enough to want to hang out with Louis..." she shuddered. "What do you say about the three of us hanging out together, just like the old days?"

"It has been a while since the three of us did anything not Order-related," admitted Nick.

"True, and there is a place I want to check out for the training that's coming up," said Emmy.

Nick blinked a couple times. "You do understand the 'not Order-related' part, right?"

"Of course, just because it's for the Order, doesn't mean we won't have fun. Just promise me you two won't do anything gross like snogging in front of me. I might just die of embarrassment."

Ash pulled out one of the pillows that was wedged between Emmy and the arm of her chair. Emmy put up her arms in defense as Ash used the pillow to swat at Emmy playfully. "Can't be any more embarrassing than being caught out in public with Louis Longbottom."

Sticking out her tongue at Ash, Emmy grabbed the other pillow in the chair and used it to push Ash off of her perch, and onto the ground. Crawling around to the front of the chair, Ash attempted to grab Emmy's ankles to pull her down as well. Emmy used the pillow in her hand to defend herself from Ash's grabby hands, with her knees pulled up into the chair.

Nick watched with interest for a couple minutes. Eventually, Emmy was on the ground with Ash pinning her arms. A triumph smile was on Ash's face. "Admit it," she said, "Admit that Louis Longbottom is actually a flobberworm in disguise!"

"Never!" cried Emmy, who was laughing more than she was fighting. It wasn't the idea of Louis secretly being a flobberworm that had her laughing so hard, but instead was the idea of Ash managing to pin her to the ground. Somebody had taken the self-defense classes seriously. It was also unlike Ash to allow herself to be silly. Perhaps her new relationship with Nick was a good thing, making her more fun and light-hearted.

Adding to the moment though, was the realization that as long as Emmy had Nick and Ash, she'd never be alone, and would never become somebody like Erik. She had friends, for better, or for worse. Maybe someday their little trio could expand to a quartet with Louis. Or maybe she was just laughing too hard and not getting enough oxygen to her brain. Like Ash would ever let _that_ happen. Though if Nick bugged her enough, Ash could give in. Surely Louis was preferable to the Swick brothers.

Once Emmy relented and admitted that Louis was truly a flobberworm who had mistakenly swallowed a polyjuice potion, the true explanation for his Squib status, Ash let Emmy, who was still laughing (it had taken several tries for her to get all the words out) go. Nick picked up the remote Emmy had thrown at him earlier, and for the rest of the night they watched a Dr. Who marathon.

* * *

Across the country, another trio was meeting.

It was Harry's and Ginny's turn to host the monthly birthday celebrations for the Weasley family. Between all six children, their spouses, grandchildren, and unofficial members, it had just become easier over the years to have one day per month to celebrate birthdays and anniversaries, instead of multiple ones. As more and more grandchildren left for Hogwarts, the gatherings had grown smaller during the months with school in session.

However, there were still a few children that had yet to reach their eleventh year. Among these were Lily Potter, celebrating her eleventh birthday two weeks early. Her uncle, Ron, was celebrating his birthday, the first of March, as well. Other March birthdays included Percy's wife, Audrey, and Hugo, the youngest of the Weasley grandchildren, turning ten.

Huddled in one corner of the room were Harry, Hermione, and Ron. In between bites of cake, Ron asked, "So what are you and Ginny going to do with Lily gone next year?"

"Ron, she has yet to receive her letter, if Hogwarts is even still sending them out," stated Hermione.

"I don't think we have to worry about that. When she was eight, James teased her by using Wingardium Leviosa on her favorite stuffed animal to keep it out of reach. She got so mad, she managed to levitate him in the air and catch the toy as it fell to the ground." Harry smiled fondly at the memory. Lily had been so proud at her first display at magic, and James had never made the mistake of taking Lily's things again.

"See, you have nothing to worry about Hermione, Lily's as good as a witch as the rest of us." Seeing the look on his wife's face, he added, "Not that we'd love her any less for turning out to be a Squib, better that than a Slytherin."

"Ron!"

"I'm just joking, I still talk to Albus after all."

"Only because he's a Cannon's fan," said Harry.

"Shows that it's the Hat with the bad taste. After all these years, the spells on it are wearing off. Flitwick should look into that."

Hermione let out an exasperated sigh, and Harry chuckled. Marriage and children hadn't changed their little trio too much.

"Lily managed to convince Ginny to spend the night before her birthday at the Leaky Cauldron, so they'll already be there first thing in the morning to get her supplies. Never mind the fact that we have Floo Powder and a fireplace."

A frown appeared on Hermione's face. "Is that safe? What about all those underage children who have gone missing, only to turn up comatose?"

"So far they've all been Muggle-borns. It could be a coincidence, or the more likely answer is that they're easier to grab than children surrounded by armed witches and wizards. We don't have much more information than that," responded Harry, talking about his latest case.

"Any chance the Order is behind it?" asked Ron.

"No definite connections, yet. Our best guess is that it's the same individuals responsible for the missing book and quill at Hogwarts. That's the only way they could even know where to find the Muggle-borns."

That was the main theory at the moment, but as to why the children were being taken, or why they were found unconscious, he didn't know. One theory was rogue Death Eaters taking out Muggle-borns before hand. Harry had dismissed this theory early on, Death Eaters wouldn't let the children be found alive. Though, their current condition wasn't much better.

"Actually, there's something I need to talk to you about. You see-"

But whatever Harry was saying was going to have to wait. Hugo and Lily had started to open presents, and Harry didn't want to miss a moment of his daughter's last birthday at home. It was little moments like these that made all the long hours he put into tracking down the Order and his job worthwhile; the knowledge that his children would have the happy and care-free childhood he never did.

****Author's Note****

****I'd like to thank Gespenster Jager, LizziePixie-Aiko, and AwkwardedOut for leaving reviews. Reviews are always nice and appreciated. I'd also like to thank everybody who favorited the story or added it to the alerts. I don't I've ever had so many for one single chapter, so it's nice to know that there is a growing audience for this story.

Next chapter will have more training, which will be more exciting than it sounds. Also, Ron's birthday being the first of March is canon. Hugo's, Lily's, and Audrey's being in March I made up.

I would also like to mention that I have the rest of the story figured out, just not written. In the last couple of chapters there will be character deaths. Despite Emmy's good intentions, she is involved in a revolution, and revolutions are typically violent. So just be aware, and don't say I didn't warn you.


	27. Surprises

I do not own the rights to Harry Potter. If I did, hardly any characters would have died, and the story would not be as good as it actually is.

**Surprises**

The Sherwood Forest Preserve had an old and proud history. In the days of yore, kings and nobles would split their time between the Main Lodge, the smaller Lodges, and hunting in the forest. Wild boars, elks, hares, deers, and foxes once filled the vast area. Over the years, some had been hunted to extinction, while others had been hunted to a mere handful. Cities sprung up around it, secluding the forest and preventing new animals from populating it.

Over the years kings and their courts started hunting elsewhere, and the Lodges fell into disrepair. Soon the forest became filled with hunted prey of another type- criminals, inspiring stories such as Robin Hood and his Merry Men. More years passed, and the criminals were captured. The land exchanged hands many times before ending up in the possession of Alfred Dunning.

Alfred saw the potential of restoring the Lodges and converting it into a tourist attraction in the 1920's. Wealthy young gentleman and ladies flocked to the Lodge as a means to get away from their 'stressful' lives. During the Blitz in World War II it served as a safe haven for children evacuated from the cities. Afterwards, it once again fell into disrepair.

That was until Mr. and Mrs. Miller bought the land from Alfred's descendants and decided to restore the area to its original purpose- a hunting preserve. Except instead of animals, the quarry would be human, and instead of firearms, the weapon of choice would be balls of paint.

The Millers brought the Main Lodge and the land into the 21st century. It still had the grandeur of the old, but was outfitted with flat screen TV's, Wi-Fi, a fitness gym, and a hot tub. In addition to the forest preserve being outfitted as a paintball course which is what attracted visitors in the first place.

Visitors like Emmy. The fact that Mr. and Mrs. Miller were a Squib and sibling of a Muggle-born (respectively) and the fireplace was connected to the Floo Network was attractive as well. They were from a later wave of recruits, and hadn't felt as if they couldn't contribute much with the Preserve taking off. That was until Emmy remembered the Preserve and recognized its potential as a training grounds.

True, fighting with paintball guns wasn't quite the same as fighting with tasers, shotguns, and Dragon's Breath, but the actual fighting itself wasn't the important part. What was important, was the teamwork gained between members of the Order, learning how to trust and read each other, and learning how to keep calm under pressure when fighting a battle.

Members of the Order who had been labeled as Fighters, and some potential Others had all gathered at the Lodge for the training, numbering just over a hundred. Emmy had only been able to take whatever weapons she could carry, and she had nowhere enough to supply over a hundred people. Which, was another benefit of the training- seeing who was more comfortable with what weapon. What the Order members didn't know, was that they were to be divided into twelve different groups to do participate in several different activities besides paintball over the weekend.

The weekend before, it had just been Emmy, Nick, and Ash- just like the old days. The three had the Preserve to themselves which made the weekend that much nicer. Sometimes it was girls vs. the boy, Nick and Ash vs. Emmy, Emmy and Nick vs. Ash, or all three vs. each other. Not even teams most of the time, but that wasn't what mattered. What mattered was that all three were spending quality time with each other.

Spring was in the air- flowers were starting to bud, birds could be heard singing, and the feeling in the air. Gone was the despair and coldness of winter, and in its place was a feeling of renewal and hope. With each breath, Emmy felt a little brighter, a little bouncier. Which was odd since she wasn't much of an outdoors person, she'd much rather be in the Lodge surrounded by technology.

She attributed the happy, bouncy feeling to spending time with her friends. Just because Nick and Ash were a couple, didn't mean she was going to end up alone like Erik; she knew that now. A new change could be brought to both the wizarding and Muggle world, and Emmy wouldn't have to lose her humanity in the process. With Nick and Ash beside her- and perhaps even Louis- the future seemed as bright as the sun on that spring day.

It was still bright a week later, when they were joined by other members of the Order, including Louis. It was he who Emmy was the most excited to see. It was the Swick brothers she was less enthusiastic about.

There was a balcony overlooking the great room of the Lodge, which was where Emmy stood when she first spotted them walking in the big front door. Spotting Louis had been her initial goal, but three familiar figures near the fireplace caught her attention instead. They were huddled together suspiciously, instead of causing chaos or hitting on the attractive female members of the Order in the room.

Wait,three?

"What's so interesting?"asked Ash, who had found a spot on the railing next to Emmy to lean on.

"The Idiots Four are missing a member. Why?"

Ash shrugged. "Maybe one finally did something stupid and got blown up, or imprisoned. Who cares?"

Emmy cared. Matters regarding the Idiots Four were left to Nick to deal with, but their lack of idiotic annoying behavior was troublesome. The three Swick brothers were always together with the other, unrelated idiot. They had proven their worth with sneaking into the Prophet, true, but Emmy still couldn't shake the feeling that something was...off.

Interrupting her train of thought, Ash said, "Look, there's Louis." Emmy looked around, and sure enough, there was Louis coming out of the fireplace. The newly formed Idiots Three glared at Louis for disturbing their conversation, and then went back to their huddle.

"I'll leave you to your flobberworm lover, it seems as though I have a certain blonde leech to remove from Nick," said Ash, referring to the blonde who had tried to attach herself to Nick ever since the first bout of training.

"He's not my flobberworm lover," growled Emmy. Her words fell on deaf ears, Ash was already gone.

* * *

Once everybody had arrived, the Millers read the instructions for the Order members they had been given. Members were then directed to gather in the teams they had randomly been assigned to, received their gear and safety equipment, and the training began.

Alright, perhaps in some cases the assignments hadn't been as 'random' as they were supposed to. Perhaps Emmy had ensured that she, Nick, Ash, and Louis were all in the same group, and on the same team.

Then again, what was the point of being in charge of the Order and training, without some benefits?

There were six other members on their team besides the four of them. The format of paintball they would be playing was woodsball, since the play would take place in a natural outdoors area. The specific game they were to play was Capture the Flag. Two games were going on in the woods between two teams each- one in the west side, and one in the east side, with the stream in the middle of the forest as a natural boundary. The first team to capture the other team's flag or hit all the members of the other team, would win. A total of three round were to be played, before moving onto the next activity.

Once their team entered the forest, Louis pulled Emmy off to the side.

"I need to know something," he said with a solemn look in his eyes. The safety goggles he was wearing made it hard for Emmy to tell, but by the tone of his voice, Emmy assumed there was a solemn look in his eyes to match.

"Alright," responded Emmy, "What?"

"Is the Order behind the kidnappings?"

"What?" asked a confused Emmy. Kidnappings? What kidnappings? And why would the Order be responsible?

"Children have gone missing throughout the country, only to turn up comatose. Is the Order behind it?" he further explained.

Emmy blinked a couple times. Kidnappings... comatose kids... that sort of sounded familiar. Comatose children weren't too high on Emmy's list of news-worthy priorities, so whenever the news program or newspaper mentioned the cases, Emmy would either stop listening or skip over the story. But why did Louis care?

"No," she said, shaking her head. "Why would we? Kidnapping children isn't part of the Order's goals."

Louis removed his his safety goggles and stared intently at Emmy, assessing whether or not she was telling the truth. "Alright," he finally said. "Forget I mentioned it."

"But why-" began Emmy, before a loud scream startled her. It was quickly followed by another scream, somewhere deeper in the forest.

Emmy looked around trying to figure out what was going on, but Louis had something else in mind. Grabbing her arm he said, "Come on, we have to get out of here."

Numb, Emmy stood where she was, trying to make sense of everything. Why did they have to get out there? What was going on? For all they knew, the screams could just be from some members overreacting members who had gotten shot.

Her answer came when a jet of red light went past her. It wasn't a paintball, wasn't a laser- it wasn't anything of Muggle origin. It was a spell. There was a witch or wizard in the forest casting spells. Emmy didn't have much time to contemplate this revelation. Growing impatient with Emmy's indecision, Louis started to drag Emmy away.

They didn't get very far though, before Louis let out a painful yelp and fell to the ground, pulling Emmy down with him. She landed uncomfortably on her paintball gun, but that was nothing compared to the cries of pain coming from Louis as he clutched his right leg. Moving his hands aside, Emmy could see a wide tear in his jeans. Underneath the rip, was a big, red splotch, with small red lines leading away. She watched in amazement as they continued to grow across Louis's skin, past the area she could see, and presumable on the rest of Louis's leg. Touching the big splotch caused Louis to scream in pain, and Emmy was surprised to see no blood on her finger as she pulled it back. Given how the splotch was now a vibrant angry-red color, Emmy had assumed it had to be a wound of some sort. However, it seemed as if whatever was causing Louis's pain, was internal, not external.

"How bad does it look?"

"There's a red mark from where it hit, but no blood." Emmy was amazed at how calm her voice sounded, since her hand was shaking nervously. It was a good thing she was already on the ground, because she didn't know if she was capable of standing up at the moment.

"Must be a Limb Stunner then. It causes severe cramps and paralysis in whatever limb it hits."

Emmy nodded along, even though she had never heard of it. Then again, there were a lot of spells she had never heard of or paid attention to. Similar to Emmy, Louis's voice sounded calm. Apparently the reality of their situation hadn't sunk in yet.

More screams filled the air, along with the sound of hurried footsteps and snapping twigs, from those fleeing. Realizing the danger they were in from being trampled by the mob of people, Emmy gathered all her strength and pulled Louis to safety in a nearby ditch. She fell only a couple times, and her arms felt as if they were going to fall off, but she managed to bring him to safety.

The whole time, Louis was quiet, trying his best not to cry out in pain. Doing so might only alert the witches or wizards in the forest as to their location.

"Thanks," he said once Emmy was done. "The pain will wear off in a while. I won't be able to walk with the leg, but at least I'll be able to move without screaming."

"No problem," responded Emmy, who was still trying to catch her breath. "I'm sure you'd do the same for me."

After a while, the screaming stopped, and the forest started to grow quiet. "What do you think is going on?"

"The Ministry," replied Louis. "Who else?"

Who else? Anybody but the Ministry, was what Emmy hoped for. Death Eaters, drunk or rogue wizards... anybody but the Ministry.

A stick snapped nearby. Emmy's head shot up, trying to find the direction the sound came from. Suddenly, she became aware that her and Louis's paintball guns were out of reach, and using her wand would reveal her true nature to Louis. Telling him the truth about who and what she was, had been on her mind for a while.

Guilt was not a familiar feeling for Emmy, but whenever she was around him, it would creep up on her. Of all people, surely Louis wouldn't be that bothered by the news that Emmy was really a witch and not a Muggle. Sure she had lied to him, and gone out of the way to conceal her magic, but she didn't want him to feel bad about his lack of. Guys were weird like that. And if she told him about being a witch, then she would have to explain why she lied, and her true role in the Order.

However desperate times called for desperate measures, and Emmy started to reach for wand which was hidden under jeans. Luck was on her side, for it wasn't a wizard who stepped through the shrubbery on Emmy's left, but a Squib-Ash.

"There you are," she said. "Aurors and hit-wizards have invaded the Preserve."

"We need to get out of here now," said Nick, who had come up from behind her. "What happened to him?"

"Got hit from a stunner," answered Louis. "Can't move my right leg. Nick is right though, we have to get out of here. Knowing the aurors, they probably have this land surrounded, so traveling by car is not an option."

"None of can apparate either," sighed Nick.

"Floo," said Emmy suddenly. "We can Floo."

Ash shook her head. "We were headed to the Lodge, but anybody who gets within a few feet gets hit with a stunner, that's why we made our way back to the forest, here there's at least cover to hide."

"There's another Lodge, a smaller one, near the creek. The owners just haven't gotten around to renovating it yet."

"Do you think it's connected to the Floo Network?" asked Ash.

Louis shrugged. "It's worth a shot, and is the only option we have. I have some Floo Powder I didn't use earlier."

Nick disagreed. "We're going to Floo? That's your solution, to Floo out of here like cowards? Why don't we fight like we were training to do?"

"Are you out of your bloody mind?" asked Emmy, who couldn't believe the words that just came out of Nick's mouth. "There's only four of us at the moment, one of which is injured, and you want us to take the Golden Boy on with nothing but paintball guns?"

"It's no more insaner than your plan to storm into the Ministry with shotguns and tasers, planning to bluff your way into power," sniped Nick.

"Nick-" said Ash, in a warning tone.

"Don't 'Nick' me, Ash, you know this plan was doomed from the beginning. If it wasn't, why did-"

"Enough!" yelled Louis. "The longer we stay here bickering, the more likely we are to get captured by the aurors and none of you want that, right? Nick, if you want to fight, fight, but I'm going to try the Floo Network."

Seeing the glares on Ash's and Emmy's faces, Nick relented. "Fine, we'll leave like cowards. But first I have a question- who's he?"

"He's Louis," replied Emmy, as if that answer should be enough for Nick.

"Alright then... so which way?"

* * *

Emmy lead their little group to the small lodge. It was a tedious process. The four proceeded slowly and carefully as to not alert any nearby wizards as to their presence. The forest was eerily quiet, as if it was holding its breath for something to happen. No witches or wizards crossed their path. Emmy didn't know if that was a good or bad thing- she kept expecting an auror to jump out from behind a tree calling, 'Gotcha'. The pain in Louis's leg may have vanished, but he had to resort to using Nick as a crutch- a situation that neither of them liked.

Eventually, the little lodge came into sight, with no wizards around. There was the still possibility of wizards being present with the help of concealing charms, or triggering a hidden trap, but it was a chance Emmy and the others were willing to take. What mattered the most was getting out of there, and the Floo Network was their only option.

The lodge was dusty and empty- good signs actually. The lack of evidence that the lodge had been disturbed, meant that Emmy, Nick, Ash, and Louis might get away after all. After that, she didn't know what they were going to do, but was sure she'd think of something, she always did. At the far end of the small lodge was a fireplace that looked as if it hadn't been used in a while.

There were some logs against one of the walls, and Nick picked them up, and put them into the fireplace. "Anybody got a match?"

Louis and Ash shook their heads. Emmy sighed and pulled out her wand. "Louis, there's something I have to tell you..."

"Emmy!" exclaimed a shocked Ash. "What are you doing?"

"She's using her magic, Ash, what-" responded Nick, and then realized why Ash was freaking out. "Him..."

"Do you have any ideas on how to start the fire? No? That's what I thought," snapped Emmy.

Throughout the exchange, Louis had been quiet, glancing from the wand in Emmy's hand to her. "What? I'm a witch, have a problem with that?"

"No, no problem at all. I assume whatever your reasons were for lying to me were good, and we can discuss them at a later time," Louis replied as diplomatically as possible.

Ash and Nick gaped at him.

Ignoring their mouths hanging wide open, Emmy held out her wand to the fireplace and said, "Incendio."

The fireplace roared to life, and Louis made a motion with his arm. "Ladies first."

"No," said Emmy. "Cripples first, then we'll follow."

"Fine, have it your way. Where are we going?"

Ash was the one who answered. "The Floo Network is probably being monitored, but I know a safe place we can get to once we're at Diagon Alley. Even if the fireplace is being watched, as long as we move quickly, we should be fine."

Louis was the first one to disappear followed by Ash, both vanishing in a puff of green smoke. Then it was Emmy's turn.

She had the green Floo Powder in her hand when the front door slammed open. Apparently their presence in the woods hadn't gone unnoticed after all. Standing in the doorway were two aurors with their wands pointed directly at Nick and Emmy.

"Give up now and we won't hurt you," said the one on the left with red-hair.

Nick, shook his head. "Go, Emmy, I'll hold them off. Go!"

He then raised his gun and aimed it at the auror's chests.

"Son, put the gun thingy down now," said the auror on the right. "Put it down now!"

Nick ignored him, and moved to pull the trigger. Emmy watched in horror as Nick was hit by a jet of green light before Nick ever got the chance, the words, 'Avada Kedavra' ringing in her ears.

Both aurors turned their attention to Emmy. Before they could say the words of a spell, Emmy had the last of the Floo Powder in her hand, and said, "Diagon Alley."

The lodge disappeared, and the inside of the Leaky Cauldron stood before her.

"Hurry up," said Ash. "People are giving us weird looks. Now we just need Nick."

Emmy shook her head. "Nick's not coming. He's... he's dead."

****Author's Note****

I did say be prepared for character deaths, and now you know why, though you probably weren't expecting them so soon.

Thanks goes to LizziePixie-Aiko, Gespenster Jager, and BrokenRainbowShatteredDreams for reviews. I will respond to signed reivews, and I'm especially interested in people's reactions to this chapter.

There are officially four chapters left. The next two will contain a lot of important developments and revelations, and will be followed by the chapter with Emmy's background story. The last chapter will be an epilogue of sorts and close up all the loose ends.

The Sherwood Forest Preserve, and Limb Stunning Spell are my own. For what I needed in this story, it was easier to create my own, than rely on canon.

That's all for now, thanks for reading, and if possible, leave a review.


	28. Betrayal

I do not own the rights to Harry Potter. If I did, I would have elaborated more on the origins of magic. Rowling has stated that Muggle-borns are the descendants of Squibs, but if that's the case, where did the wizards first get their magic if it's not some random genetic mutation? Are they a different species Was that ancient aliens guy right along, and wizards are actually from another planet? Or were their ancestors exposed to some kind of weird, toxic, substance that permanently altered their DNA. Or maybe Atlantis was real, and the wizards are descendants of the survivors. Questions like these can keep me up at night.

**Betrayal**

Hubert MacGuffin could hear his heart pounding in his chest. Just a day ago he had been informed he would be part of a group of Aurors ambushing an Order training exercise. While they wouldn't have magic, they would have paintball guns.

At the time he didn't know what a paintball gun was, but he did know what a gun was- the Muggle's version of a wand that didn't require words to be spoken to kill. He had once dated a Muggle-born, and she had made him watch a film about some bloke who went around introducing his first name first- Bond, James Bond. What kind of person went around doing that? Hubert didn't like the movie very much, but there were some decent parts. What stuck with him the most though, was that Muggle weapons could be much deadlier than wizards, and those gun thingys should be avoided. Perhaps paintball gun was a type of brand or model, like how for brooms there were Nimbuses, Cleansweeps, and Firebolts.

Standing before him was a Muggle with some type of gun, and behind him was a girl near a fireplace. Judging by the green flames, she and the boy were planning to Floo away, well not on his watch.

"Give up now and we won't hurt you," said his partner, Seamus Finnegan.

The boy shook his head. "Go, Emmy, I'll hold them off. Go!"

Emmy, must be the name of the girl, thought Hubert. The boy paid no attention to Seamus's warning, and started to raise his gun.

"Son, put the gun thingy down now. Put it down now!" cried Hubert who's mind was racing. Muggle had a gun, Muggle was starting to aim the gun at Hubert, gun would kill Hubert before Hubert could shoot a spell at the Muggle. Hubert didn't want to die yet, he had finally managed to sum up enough courage to ask out his co-worker, Maisie Cattermole. Not letting the Muggle get a chance to pull the trigger, he yelled 'Avada Kedavra'-the only spell he could think of- as the boy was still steadying his gun.

The boy fell to the ground dead, and the girl Flooed away to Diagon Alley. Seamus looked at him in horror, and Hubert studied the dead body on the floor before them.

"I didn't want to... but I didn't want to die either."

* * *

Nick ignored him, and moved to pull the trigger. Emmy watched in horror as Nick was hit by a jet of green light before Nick ever got the chance, the words, 'Avada Kedavra' ringing in her ears.

Nick was dead. D-E-A-D. Dead dead dead dead _dead_.

No matter how many times she reminded herself of this fact, it still didn't seem real.

Worse yet, he had died because of _her_- because of Prometheus, because of her training, because he just had to play the hero and help her get away? What was he thinking? Even if he had time to shoot the gun, the balls were just paint. They might have surprised the aurors at first, but once they realized the substance being fired at them was_ paint_, Nick would have been destined for a body-binding spell or a stunner. Surely he must of known this.

Or maybe he truly believed wizards were morons, like Emmy had always claimed. Or maybe he didn't think they would actually kill him. Or maybe he was just caught up in the moment, adrenaline pumping in his veins.

Whatever he had been thinking, Emmy would never know now, for Nick was dead. D-E-A-D. Dead.

Ash, was the one who finally broke through Emmy's stupor, shaking her. "What do you mean Nick's dead?"

"Two Aurors came through the door. Nick started to raise his gun, one panicked and..." Emmy couldn't bare to finish the sentence. Nick was dead and it was all her fault.

"I think we need to have this conversation elsewhere," said Louis. "With the way we all look, it's only a matter of time before aurors get a tip about the Leaky Cauldron. Now, you said you had a safe place?"

"Yes," said Ash quietly. "Follow me."

When Emmy didn't move from her spot in the fireplace, Louis grabbed her arm and dragged her, just like he had done earlier. From there, they made their way outside to where the brick wall entrance for Diagon Alley. After that things were a blur. Somehow, they ended up underground, in somewhat familiar tunnels. The only thing Emmy was conscious of was what an odd group they made. Ash in the lead supporting Louis who was currently dragging Emmy along. Girl, boy, girl, just like usual. Except instead of Squib, Muggle, witch, it was Squib, Squib, witch.

For Nick was dead, and things would never be the same again.

Suddenly, the three came to a stop. "In here," said Ash, indicating passing through a small doorway. That was when Emmy finally realized why her surroundings were so familiar.

"Gringotts, we're under Gringotts."

Confirming Emmy's theory, Ash nodded. Louis, meanwhile was confused. "Gringotts? How are we under Gringotts?"

"Tunnels, that's how we broke into Gringotts at the beginning, we tunneled through using drills."

"On the other side is a vault that hasn't been used in years. We can stay in there while the aurors search above, it'll never occur to them that we're hiding beneath their feet," stated Ash.

Emmy, nodded mutely, and followed Ash and Louis into the empty vault. For an empty vault, it certainly didn't appear to be quite that empty. In the middle of the room was a well-used wooden table, covered with scraps of parchment, books, and glass vials. Against one wall, was a bench, and along another was a row of bookcases. Candles were scattered about the room for a light source, and Ash went from one to another lighting them.

"What is all this stuff?" asked Emmy. As far as she knew, the tunnels were abandoned once Gringotts had been robbed, and they certainly had never set up some kind of secret room/clubhouse in one of them.

Ash's cheeks started to turn red. "Nick..." she paused, apparently having just as much of a hard time with his death as Emmy was. "Nick and I needed our own space."

Louis hobbled over to the bench, and sat on it with his bum leg out straight. "Cozy little place. So what now?"

Both looked to Emmy, expecting some kind of plan. Except Emmy didn't have a plan. All her plans had gone out the window once the Ministry attacked and killed Nick. That was one possibility she had never considered- the Ministry actually managing to pull off a sneak attack on the Order.

"Well, the plan is," she bluffed, "Ash, I'm assuming you know these tunnels well. See if you can get us any food or supplies for us to hide out here for a while. If the streets are full of aurors, forget it, and come back. In the meantime I'll watch Louis and start planning out our next attack."

If there was even going to be a next attack. At this point all that mattered was that Emmy appeared to be still in control. As long as she appeared to be in control, Ash and Louis would never guess that beneath her carefully maintained facade she was a nervous mess. She had tried so hard to keep her ego in check, to not repeat her South Korean mistake or even the ones she made during the first training session, to plan for every possible situation. And she failed, epically. Her determination to lead the Order and overthrow the current Ministry with as little bloodshed as possible, now seemed naive in hind sight. The wizards weren't afraid of spilling a little blood, so why should she be afraid? Why should she be bigger than them? Why should she even care about them?

Then there was Louis to consider. He had done so much for her, and was now injured because of her. If she had moved faster instead of being frozen in place, maybe he wouldn't have gotten hit. Or maybe it would have been her.

"It's not your fault," he said. "The look on your face," he said, answering Emmy's silence question about how he knew what she was thinking about. "It wasn't your fault that Nick died."

Alright, so he wasn't quite the mind reader. Emmy sat down on the far end of the bench, not bothering to respond. Ash would be back soon, and both her and Louis would expect some type of plan for what to do next.

Trying to distract Emmy, Louis decided to bring up another sensitive topic. "So... you're a witch? Care to explain why you hid it all this time?"

"Um..." she replied, wracking her brain for a quick, believable excuse. "I didn't want anybody in the Order to discriminate against me?"

"Why did you join the Order in the first place? And why aren't you at Hogwarts?"

The first question, Emmy couldn't honestly answer. Not wanting to lie anymore to Louis than she already had, she decided to tackle the second. That one she could at least answer somewhat honestly.

"I just didn't fit in there, so I left..."

Louis gave her an incredulous look. "You didn't fit in at Hogwarts? You seem like you would have been popular there."

This time, Emmy had an incredulous look on her face. Her, popular? Perhaps the spell had damaged more than Louis's leg. Even when she had been at Hogwarts, popular was certainly not a word that would have described her. She hadn't been unpopular, more like, non-existent. Her lack of outgoing nature didn't help with her situation either.

"I don't know, you just seem like a lot of fun, like you would have been the next great prankster."

Emmy was saved from deciphering that comment, for Ash had just returned with her enchanted trunk (apparently she had stashed it somewhere in addition to everything else. Emmy made a mental note to demand an explanation of everything Ash had been hiding from her) full of supplies. Though it quickly became apparent that Emmy's definition of supplies was very different from Ash's. When Ash opened the trunk, inside was not food, blankets, or potions, but a crying girl.

"What is she doing in your trunk?" growled Louis. Emmy had been about to ask the same question.

A creepy looking smile appeared on Ash's face, reminding Emmy of a similar one that had appeared on Erik's just a couple weeks ago. "Her? She's our revenge against Harry and the Aurors. Imagine my surprise when I see a well-known little red-headed girl standing outside of Quality Quidditch Supplies with her face pressed up against the glass, oblivious to what was going on around her."

"What do you plan on doing?" asked Louis. "Kill her?"

The girl sobbed louder upon hearing the word 'kill', but Ash laughed. "There are worse fates than death, and since Harry and his Aurors took something precious from me, I'm going to take something precious from him, his only daughter. He'll get her back alright, just not all of her, and only after making a deal to not pursue us."

Louis stared at Ash. "What do you mean a fate worse than death?"

"What's the point in being alive if you don't have your soul as well? Besides, I don't seem Emmy coming up with any plans, not that her past few have even been any good."

At the mention of her name, Emmy looked up, and into Ash's eyes. They seemed to have a wild-manic look to them, completely un-Ash like. She knew that Ash had been willing to go to extreme measures before, but this? Taking an innocent child's soul? Emmy wanted revenge on the Ministry and Harry for Nick's death, as stupid as he had behaved, but Ash's plan seemed to be more far-fetched than any of Emmy's, including the first training session.

"You've done this before, haven't you? You're behind the kidnappings," stated Louis.

Kidnappings? The conversation between her and Louis earlier that morning, which felt like a lifetime ago, flooded Emmy's mind. Children, Muggle-borns, were being kidnapped and reappearing in a coma, and the wizards suspected the Order. But what if they weren't in a coma, what if they had fallen to a fate worse than death? Surely, Louis was mistaken.

He wasn't. "What if I am? It's not like they were using their magic," confirmed Ash.

"Magic?" said Emmy finally. "Is that what it was all about? The fact that they had magic and you didn't?"

"Of course that's what it was all about, that's what it's always been about! And you, you don't even use your magic, acting like it's some sort of disease. After a while it became apparent that your plans were getting riskier and riskier, so Nick and I decided to have a back-up plan, and it's a good thing we did."

A disgusted look appeared on Louis's face. "By kidnapping children?"

Ash shrugged. "Muggle-borns were the most vulnerable, didn't know about their magic and had no wizard parents keeping a watchful eye on them. Anybody would do though," she said and looked at Lily who was still sobbing quietly. She had begged her mother to take her to Diagon Alley for her birthday, and now she was regretting it.

"Souls, you said souls earlier. How are they involved?" asked Louis.

"Magic may be hereditary, but magic itself does not come from a person's genetics," stated Ash matter of factly. "You taught me that Emmy, back when we first met. It didn't make sense until I stole a hair of yours and a polyjuice potion from my parents. I turned into you, but still couldn't produce even the simplest spell. Nick and I discussed it, and came up with another possibility, the soul. Genetics might determine if you inherit magic or not, but it actually comes from a person's soul. Finding a spell was tricky though," she said frowning.

"Luckily, my uncle's family has plenty of books regarding the Dark Arts, and we found one that might work. Even Squibs and Muggles can do potions and decipher runes, Emmy, we're not completely useless. Once we had the unnecessary incantations figured out, we went to Balthazar and he agreed to finance it, and even got some wizard to perform the necessary spells on the vials. The Swick brothers helped up capture the children and transport them in the trunk, well at least till the one got cold feet the coward. Then we dropped some of their blood and hair into the potion that was in the vial, and suddenly, pop! There it was, in all of its silvery splendor. Of course, souls don't like somebody else besides their owner's body forcing them to use magic, so we've only had minimal success so far. But once we get enough souls, we'll be just as capable as performing magic as any wizard."

When Ash finished her monologue, she looked to Emmy to gauge her reaction. Emmy's face was scrunched up, deep in thought, trying to make sense of everything. Louis, however, had no problem deciding what to do next. Pulling out a wand hidden up his sleeve, he pointed it at Ash. "In the name of the Minister of Magic, you are hereby placed under arrest."

Not even fazed by it, Ash responded, "Whoever said trust was needed for a relationship to succeed? Look at you two, concealing the fact from each other that you both have magic. I always knew there was something off about you though, you weren't nearly half the git you were when I first met you."

While Ash had been busy with revealing her and Nick's plan, Lily had stopped crying, and gotten out of the trunk. Her gaze was fixated on Louis who was still sitting on the bench with a wand in his hand. Something about that wand seemed awfully familiar...

"Teddy?" she sniffed, "Is that you?"

"It is Lils, don't worry, I'm going to get you out of here alive," he answered.

"Teddy, as in Teddy Lupin, the famous metamorphagi and godson of Harry Potter? Well, isn't this an interesting turn of events. See Emmy, you should have listened to me, we did have a mole in the Order, and it turns out he was your boyfriend," responded Ash with a laugh.

"Shut up," yelled Emmy suddenly, "SHUT UP!"

Her voiced startled everybody in the room, causing them to turn their attention to her. "He is not my boyfriend," she spat out. "Get out. Get out of here and take the Golden's Boy brat with you."

"But Emmy-" began Ash.

"He has a bum leg, and while he might be an Auror, he still cares for the brat enough to want her out of here safely, leaving now is his only option. The spells on Gringotts prevent him from apparating out, so taking the tunnels are his only option. By the time he gets out of here and returns with the other Aurors, we'll be long gone," Emmy said coldly. "Now get out."

Louis wanted to say something to her, but the hard look in her eyes dissuaded him. "I'll leave now, but we will find you, Kelly, or Emmy, or whatever your name actually is. Lily, would you mind helping me walk?"

Using Lily as a support, both exited the vault. Once they were gone, Ash spoke up. "We let them go? We could have Harry in the palm of our hand, having his daughter and godson as hostages, if you were only willing to go farther!"

"I am willing," responded Emmy. "You're not the only one with secrets. While you and Nick were off kidnapping children, I was making alliances with the Knights of Camelot, a Muggle group like us. Their leader gave me supplies and offered support for when we attacked the Ministry. At the time I declined, but now I think it's time to reconsider. It's time for a line to be crossed, and for the Order to have it's shining moment. I assume you know a faster way out than they took?"

"I know several different ways in and out. Why?"

"You can find the leader here," said Emmy. She ripped a small corner off of one of the pieces of paper that was strewn on the table and wrote down an address.

"I'll have to call ahead and let him know that you're coming, but then I'll leave and wait for you and his people outside the Ministry. The fools shall pay in blood for Nick's death and betraying our trust," said Emmy, her voice calm, and unwavering.

"Really? You're really ready to take the next step?" asked Ash with a hopeful gleam in her eye.

Emmy turned her gaze downward, toward the stone floor. "I was as foolish as they are, thinking we could ever achieve anything otherwise." Then she looked back up. "We'll hit them so hard and fast they'll have no idea what's happening. As the Golden Boy and his followers rush to get here, we'll be attacking an unprotected Ministry."

The smile which then appeared on her face was a cruel one, rivaling that of Erik's and Ash's from earlier.

"Nick always insisted that we tried to include you in everything, but I was unsure how you would react. Perhaps if we had, he might still be alive..."

"Nick is dead now, and his death will not be in vain. Now go."

It was with a heavy heart, that Emmy watched Ash leave the vault and she reached for her mobile. Somehow, in spite of all the chaos that transpired over the past couple hours, she still had it with her in perfect working order. The choice she was about to make, was probably one of the hardest ones she had ever faced, and it would mean doing an act she had once vowed to never perform.

There was no hope for her, Nick, Ash, and Louis to achieve power together and for a happy ending. Instead, she was going to have stop being teenager Emmy and turn back into calm and in control Emmy, like how she was at the beginning with the Gringott's robbery. Considering that Gringotts was her current location, it made the situation that more meaningful.

This was war after all, and some lines had to be crossed, to ever think otherwise was a fool's folly. Besides, in the end, her choice really was for the greater good.

****Author's Note****

I'd like to thank Guest, Gespenster Jager, BrokenRainbowShatteredDreams , LizziePixie-Aiko, and Wise Girl16 for reviews.

Guest, yes it is a lot quicker to pull a trigger then to say Avada Kedavra. However, as seen in the first part of this chapter, Hubert warned Nick, then said the words while Nick was getting ready to pull the trigger. If Nick had been more ready, he would have been able to pull the trigger, not that it would have mattered. Hubert would have been hit with paint, not bullets, which would have hurt him, but not fatally. As Emmy says, he was stupid thinking he could take on two Aurors with a paintball gun.

As for Hubert using Avada Kedavra instead of a stunner, he was caught up in the moment. He didn't know the difference between a paintball gun and a regular gun, and the fault somewhat lies on Harry for not clarifying the guns the Order had were non-lethal like the guns Hubert thought he had. He thought he was about to die, and all the other spells he could have used he forgot. I've had the same thing happen to me before on tests. I freak out because I only have so much time left before I have to turn it in, and as a result everything I know vanishes, and I make simple, basic, mistakes.

Moving on to this chapter which had even more twists and surprises. All my hard work at hiding little things throughout the story and laying the ground work for these last chapters is finally starting to pay off. Next chapter will have Harry and Emmy finally meeting for the first time face to face.

Now, some important notes about this chapter I've hinted since the St. Mungo's chapter, Nick and Ash were developing some back-up plan in case Emmy's failed. It's also been the reason why so many of the latest chapters have focused on Emmy instead of them. She's also been so busy concentrating on the perfect plan, she hasn't noticed little things like the kidnapped children sub-plot, or what Ash and Nick were actually doing while they were gone. I've also hinted that they've both were desperate for magic, and when a person is desperate, they tend to do stupid and horrible things they might not do otherwise.

Also, as far as I can tell, Ash's and Nick's theory of magic coming from your soul does follow canon. When Voldemort created the horcruxes by dividing his soul, they were cut off from the rest of him. The diary horcrux needed Ginny to tell him about his later self and what happened with Harry, he didn't know any of it. Yet, the soul was also able to do magic on his own, without Voldemort actually directing it to do anything, once Ginny gave him some of her strength.

As for the Teddy/Lupin twist, it's something I've had planned from the very beginning. The real Louis first shows up when Ash meets him in Chapter 9. After that, the Louis Emmy encounters is Teddy. The deception and any information he gathers being the main purpose of Operation Zeus. Dumbledore succeeded thanks to Snape, and Harry knew if he was to succeed, he would need his own Snape in the Order of Prometheus.

While I did intend for all of this to be a surprise, I hope all the hints I've dropped throughout the story helps with it making more sense in hindsight. Over the next couple chapters, more details will be revealed.


	29. Choices

I do not own the rights to Harry Potter. If I did my descriptions and action scenes would be better.

**Choices**

Her worst fear had come true after all- Emmy was now truly and completely alone. Nick was dead. Louis wasn't Louis, and instead was a spy. Ash... well, Ash's fate hurt the most of all, for it was the one that Emmy knew she was fully responsible for.

She had called Erik once Ash had left the room, letting him know that a member of the Order was on their way, ready to attack the government. While Erik did tell her where Ash was to go, Emmy knew the address already. Just because Darren, her source, had stopped sending her updates on the KoC, didn't mean she had stopped receiving updates completely. After her visit, Erik and the KoC had abandoned the area (rightly) believing the location had been compromised. If some little teenage girl had managed to find the warehouse, the police couldn't have been too far behind.

The KoC may have eluded police by abandoning the warehouse and moving to another, but they didn't elude the 'little teenage girl' and the Eyes of Argus. Within a matter of days, her system had found them. Unlike last time, she told nobody, silently watching from afar. Erik's phone number had been much simpler to find- he had left it on a piece of paper taped to the back of one of the GPS tracking devices hidden in a box of supplies. His true intention had been to determine just how worthy she (and by association the Order) was to receive help from the KoC. She would either lead him to the Order's doorstep for his own investigation, or would find the tracking device and his phone number, proving she had the brains to back up her ambition.

That was the most plausible explanation Emmy had been able to think of at the time. She had narrowed it down to Erik being a conniving sneak wanting to test her, or being a forgetful idiot who had to think of a last minute idea so she would be able to contact him later. Given his success at causing chaos and avoiding capture, Emmy went with the former. For the latter to be true, then the government had to be even stupider than Erik, and recent lessons had taught Emmy that government officials (Muggle and wizards alike) were not as moronic as she thought them initially.

After informing Erik that Alice was occupied with her own duties, and was sending Ash in her place, Emmy made one more call. That one was as an anonymous informant with a tip to the current whereabouts of the KoC and that they were preparing for an attack It didn't take a genius to figure out what would happen next. They'd confirm the tip, and surround the building (another warehouse in London, just another part). The KoC would be given a chance to surrender, but Erik wouldn't; he would rather die and take as many of his enemies with him, even if that meant allies as well. Allies, like Ash.

Unlike Louis, Emmy was mostly while Ash explained what she and Nick had been up to when not with Emmy. During that time she had been connecting the dots, trying to make some sort of sense out of the chaos unfolding around her. Ash and Nick's disappointment that Emmy wasn't willing to go to more extreme lengths, and their quiet obedience. Emmy had thought they had been brought around to her way of thinking. Instead, they had been plotting behind her back, willing to go to the lengths she wasn't. Even with her latest plan of using non-lethal weapons hadn't been enough for them.

She was so occupied with the Order, her plans to disrupt the opening ceremony of the Winter Games, her plans for attacking the Ministry, and Louis, that she didn't notice what was going right on in front of her. She had assumed that their new relationship was the reason for Nick and Ash spending so much time together, unintentionally excluding her. In a way Emmy had been right, the cause was a new relationship, but her being left out was intentional.

If they had come to her with what they were planning to do, she would have dismissed them and called them crazy. Stealing souls was something dementors did, not people. The fact that they were using children since they were easier targets was logical and twisted at the same time. Emmy may not have been very fond of children, but they were still innocent and had yet to do wrong unlike the Ministry. She would have stopped them, told them there had to be another way for them to have magic that didn't involve exploiting others.

Desperate times made people do stupid things, Emmy knew that from her own experience, and figured it applied to Ash and Nick as well. Except, unlike Emmy, Ash had no regret for her actions, no regret for stealing the souls of innocent children. To Ash, the end justified the means. Her callousness toward them, and her would-be victim Lily caused Emmy to reconsider Ash's level of innocence. She didn't regret her actions for one moment, and was willing to do whatever it took to get what she wanted. The attitude reminded Emmy of others- Erik, Voldemort, Grindelwald, and other powerful figures throughout history. None had happy endings.

There was no point in talking Ash out of what she was doing, she was too far gone. The only option Emmy had was to join her, or fight her. For one brief moment, she considered it: joining Ash, storming the Ministry, and taking over in a grand and bloody way. Putting the wizards in their place, and even allowing them to be stripped of their magic and given to Squibs and Muggles.

By doing so, however, Emmy would be no better than them. Such an act would place Muggles and Squibs above wizards, which wasn't what Emmy wanted. She wanted them to live together in peace and harmony, she wanted those who were different or had strange ideas to fit in and be appreciated for their uniqueness. Joining Ash would result in none of that. If anything, Emmy would just be another Voldemort, punishing a group of people for the crime of what they were born. Instead of being revered and loved, she'd be hated and feared by the wizarding world. There would always be a feeling of unease between wizards and Muggles, both sides afraid of the other. Ash might have been okay with that, but Emmy wasn't.

That was when she knew what she had to do. As much as it pained her, as much as it mean becoming more like Erik- disposing of one's friends when they were no longer useful- it really was for the greater good, for wizards and Muggle alike. She could have turned herself into the Aurors, but Ash wouldn't have allowed herself to be captured, and Emmy didn't know if she would be capable of tricking Ash into letting herself get captured. Teddy was in no condition to bring her in, and the Aurors that were didn't know where they were. Short of hitting her over the head and tackling her to the ground, Emmy didn't know how else to keep Ash in place before any Aurors could arrest her. If there were any other possibilites, Emmy couldn't think of them.

Having made her choice, the problem then became lying convincingly enough as to not arouse any suspicion. Emmy had become so good at lying and wearing a facade while hiding her nerves over the past year, she wasn't too concerned that she wouldn't be able to pull it off.

What did concern her was being able to convince Ash to let Louis- no Teddy- and Lily go. As long as they remained in the vault, Ash would concentrate on hurting them to avenge Nick's death. With them out of the way, Emmy could propose an alternative for her pain. Louis's/Teddy's betrayal hurt just as much as Ash's, but that didn't mean Emmy wanted him to die.

He had been her friend, or had done a good job at pretending to be her friend. He reminded her that she was still just a teenager, and there was nothing wrong with acting like one. For that, Emmy was grateful. His betrayal hurt just as much as Ash's and Nick's, but that didn't mean he deserved to lose his soul or life. The days of petty revenge were behind Emmy. Taking down the Ministry was no longer a little game, there was no longer a time for pranks. It had grown out of control and turned into something more sinister, with more serious choices and consequences. Emmy had already lost one person she cared about that day, was about to lose another, and was determined to not lose one more if she could help it.

Somehow the lie about how letting him and the girl go flowed easily off her tongue. Her cutting words at the end was what convinced Ash it wasn't just an act. The hurt look in his eyes gave Emmy an unexpected sort of satisfaction, she had gotten her revenge after all. Now he knew how much his own betrayal had pained her. But she rather him suffer that pain, than death. She just hoped that someday he'd understand.

* * *

And just like that, she was alone in the vault. Teddy would bring the Aurors back eventually, but Emmy didn't care. He now knew that she was a witch and most likely the leader of the Order, but none of that mattered anymore. What mattered was correcting her mistakes, to ease some of the guilt on her mind. She may not have kidnapped those children or stole their souls, but she could have stopped Nick and Ash, she could have figured out what they were up to before they got too far along with their plans. Instead, she did nothing.

Emmy started to read some of the parchments that were scattered on top of the table, trying to figure out how exactly Ash and Nick stole the souls and what she could do to release them. Ash had somewhat described the process, but Emmy had only been half-listening at that point- her mind had been occupied with other thoughts.

At one point her hand brushed against an old book. There was no title, just a blank cover, and a quill sticking out between the pages. Curious as to what it contained, she opened it and another puzzle piece fell into place.

The book, and the quill that was placed inside the cover, were the very same magic quill and book which had been stolen from Hogwarts over winter break. Ash and Nick had probably stolen it, and already knew the location of it and that sneaking into Hogwarts was possible due to Emmy's escapade months earlier. With the book and the documents from St. Mungo's they had all they needed to track down Muggle-borns. Since they were kidnapping them and not recruiting them, it was imperative to know their exact location and patterns, not just their home address.

Emmy continued rummaging through the parchments, reading passages that made her stomach turn. Dark magic such as horcurxes, the origins of dementors, and eventually the recipe for the potion and the description for the process Ash and Nick had used. They had kept the use of magic to a minimum so they would be able to perform most of the steps by themselves. One thing Emmy did remember Ash saying was that even Squibs and Muggles could brew potions and write runes.

Since the process was fairly easy for them to do, it was also fairly easy for Emmy to undo. It appeared as if all Emmy had to do was unseal the vials that contained the souls. Pop out the cork and they would return to their bodies. Simple and quick, within minutes all the souls had emerged from their glass prisons and rose up higher and higher in the air, before passing through through the ceiling.

There were only seven and the process seemed anti-climatic. So many things had gone wrong that day that Emmy had expected releasing the souls to be difficult. Maybe a last minute interruption from Ash, returning from the KoC or having figured out Emmy's true plan, the Aurors barging in, a complicated spell to perform, or at least a stuck cork. Instead, there was nothing.

With the souls finally released and hopefully on their way to their bodies, Emmy realized she had another problem. When the Aurors arrived they would seize the parchments and Dark Arts books for evidence, and they could eventually wind up in the wrong hands. Even if they were locked away, as longer as they existed they posed a threat to the wizarding world. Even if it wasn't a dark wizard, there was still the possibility of a wizard with pure intentions misusing the objects as a way to strip criminals of their magic and souls. The Ministry had already gone there once with dementors, and who was to say they wouldn't go there again, especially if it meant avoiding the unpleasant side effect of dementors? Having such an easy alternative available would be too much of a temptation, and the process could be used against anybody the Ministry deemed was an enemy, just like dementors had been used. It might not happen now or for hundreds of years, or at all, but Emmy didn't want to risk it.

The magic book and quill- the only objects in the room of practical use- were then placed outside of the vault to keep them safe. Once they were out of the room, Emmy set about completing the next bit of her plan- burning the rest. Between the turned over candles and her wand, all of the parchments, books, potion materials, and anything else that had aided Ash and Nick, were quickly set on fire.

The vault became full of smoke trying to find a way out. The only exits was the main door which Emmy knew had been bespelled not to let anything escape the room, even smoke, and the small side door that Emmy, Nick, and Ash had used. The smoke could get out in between the cracks along the side, but it was not enough space to ventilate the room.

Emmy didn't care. Whether it was being captured by Aurors, or suffocating from the smoke-for she knew the smoke would get her long before the heat of the fire- she no longer cared. Her friends were gone, either directly or indirectly by her own hand. The only other person she had cared about was working for the other side. The Order was pretty much lost, and even if it wasn't, her heart wasn't into it anymore.

It was a silly idea anyway. By going against the Ministry and the Golden Boy, she was doomed from the start. They would always be the heroes, and by challenging them she had become a villain. If Voldemort couldn't pull it off, what hope did Emmy have? Even if she had been able to avoid violence, she would have never been able to win over the wizarding community. They were stuck in the past, and were opposed to new ideas and technology. Things would never change, and she was a fool for trying.

The smoke in the room stung her eyes, and caused them to fill with water. The heat was becoming more intense, and it was becoming harder and harder to breathe. As Emmy started to cough and gasp for air, she couldn't help but think how ironic the entire situation was. From the start she had chosen Prometheus and his gift of fire and knowledge as symbols for the Order. She saw them as symbols for life and enlightenment, and wanted to do the same for wizards, bringing them into the 21st century.

Yet, here she was, about to die due to his gift. Perhaps that was Prometheus's true intention. Zeus hadn't punished him for giving humans fire and knowledge, but instead for giving them a weapon to use against each other. He had tricked the humans by giving them death, not life. Maybe he really was the villain, and Zeus really was the hero. Just like how Teddy, Harry, and the Aurors were the heroes and she was the villain.

Her last thought coherent thought was how fitting of an end it was, being destroyed by Prometheus's gift.

* * *

When Emmy opened her eyes, she realized several things. The first was that she wasn't dead. Or if she was, being dead was very similar to being alive. The second realization she had was that she was in St. Mungo's. The room had a hospital feel to it, from the bland walls to the tile floors to the hospital robe she was wearing. The smiling moving pictures on the wall informing her the importance of not drinking and flying/apparating indicated her location was not a Muggle one, as did the absence of electronics such as a telly, phone, or devices to monitor her health and well-being.

She tried to sit up in bed to get a better view around her, but discovered she couldn't move her right arm more than a couple centimeters away. There was an invisible spell chaining her to the bed's metal headboard, preventing escape and using her wand arm. The bed itself was stuck to the floor and wall to stop her from dragging it out of the room.

So the Golden Boy had proven to be quite the hero after all; no doubt barging in with his Aurors to save Emmy from her fiery fate. Deciding that escape was not a possibility, Emmy resigned herself to her inevitable interrogation, trial, and imprisonment. At one point a healer entered the room, pleased to see that Emmy was awake and seemed to be breathing alright despite inhaling a large amount of smoke. Just to be sure though, Emmy was handed several different potions to consume to ensure her health. Emmy had to use her left hand to drink them, and sheer willpower to gag them down. Apparently if something was good for you (which the healer kept assuring they were, and not poisons as Emmy had suggested) it had to taste horrible as well. The more horrible, the better.

Eventually the healer left, and Emmy was alone, again. By now she was used to it. At one point she must have fallen asleep, because she awoke upon hearing the door to the room open.

Emmy had never seen Harry Potter in person. She had seen pictures of him in the Prophet and in her parents personal possessions- both had gone to school with him- but she had never had the experience of seeing him up close and personal. She was disappointed to find that he looked so ordinary, and not some all-powerful wizard she had imagined over the years.

"Hello Kelly," he said and pulled a chair that was against the wall closer toward her bed and sat down. "Or I suppose Emmy is more accurate."

Her response was a shrug. The fact that he knew her real first name wasn't unexpected, both Ash and Nick had used it in front of Aurors.

"The healers said you've been responding well to the potions and that you should make a full recovery. Also-"

"Why?" Emmy said, interrupting him. "Why are we doing this? Why not just throw me into Azkaban and be done with me? We both know I'm guilty anyway."

"What exactly do you think you're guilty of?" he asked.

To Emmy, the question was a stupid one. She was guilty of everything. "What does it matter? I'm the villain, you're the hero. You're suppose to foil my evil plan and lock me up and throw away the key, that's how it works."

"What makes you think you're such a terrible person that you should be locked up?"

The sincere look in his eyes surprised Emmy. He wasn't mocking her, but was genuinely interested in what she had to say.

"I tried to overthrow the Ministry," she stated blankly.

"Technically so have I. I've also broken into Gringotts, like you, and even the Ministry. Yes those are crimes, but that doesn't automatically make a person a villain."

The statement was true, but he had only done those things to fight Voldemort and restore order. Emmy had done those things to fight Harry, it wasn't the same, she wasn't like him.

"I'm a Slytherin," she replied. "Loads of rotten people have come from that house." A smile appeared on her face, there was no way he could link them together based on that.

"Being a Slytherin doesn't automatically makes a person evil. I've known good people from that house, and I've known terrible people from other houses. Next reason?"

"Why do you care so much?" snapped Emmy. It didn't make sense. Anybody else would have accepted her answers and her admission of guilt, and sent her to Azkaban, skipping a trial.

"I know what evil is, I've fought it enough times in my life. The girl I see before me is certainly not evil. If she was she wouldn't have spared my godson, wouldn't have shied away from violence, wouldn't have warned one of my people about a possible Muggle threat, and wouldn't have freed the souls of children."

He paused, letting the words sink in. They did make Emmy feel better, but only somewhat. His words didn't address the sources the guilt which had been eating away at her though, the reasons for her choice to stay in the smoke-filled vault and die, the reasons for her belief she should be sent to Azkaban. "I'm a murderer," she admitted quietly, looking away from Harry and down at her hands. "Because of me, people are dead."

"Did you physically take their life?"

"No, but-"

"But nothing," he said, interrupting her once he correctly guessed where her guilt was actually coming from. "Actually killing somebody and having them die as a result of your choices are two different things. While your actions may have led to their death, don't forget they made their own choices as well."

Emmy supposed there was some truth to that statement. She never forced Ash and Nick to join her, and the whole stealing souls thing was something they decided to do on their own without her. Nick could have lowered his gun, but instead he raised it. Ash could have let Lily and Teddy go or have refused to go to the KoC, but she didn't. Emmy didn't know if Ash was dead or alive, but it really didn't matter either way- Ash would never be her friend again, and she still felt guilt over the choice she had made. Harry's words lessened the guilt, but it was still there.

Harry continued. "It doesn't matter what you're born, what matters are the choices you make. They made theirs, and you made yours. What I want to know is what are the choices you made, and why you made them. That's why I'm here instead of 'locking you up and throwing away the key'."

Her left hand played with the folds in the hospital blanket which was covering her, and she considered his words. Should she tell him everything? Would it help her, or just make things worse? Would he even believe her? Not even Ash and Nick knew the complete story about her past. She never encouraged them to ask questions or volunteered anything. Emmy had actually told Louis/Teddy more about her past than she had Ash and Nick, and that was before the 'I'm a witch' reveal. Finally she made up her mind.

"It's a long story."

"I'm very familiar with long stories. I find that they are often better and more accurate than short stories."

She stopped playing with the blanket and looked up at him. The choice she was about to make was a difficult one, but Emmy had a feeling it would make her feel better, and not worse once she was done.

****Author's Note****

I'd like to thank Wise Girl16, pjgarlach, Gespenster Jager and BrokenRainbowShatteredDreams for reviews.

BrokenRainbowShatteredDreams , I'm sorry I killed Nick, but it had to be done. The fact that you hate me for it shows that you cared for him as a character which shows I did my job as a writer and made you care about OC's. I'm glad you liked the evil Ash and Teddy/Louis twists. As you saw in this chapter, I do enjoy my twists, and hopefully you enjoy the latest one as well.

There are two chapters left and the next one will be about Emmy's past.

So, Ash and Nick betrayed Emmy, and in return Emmy betrayed Ash. Was it a hard choice to make? Yes, but Emmy didn't know what else to do. Was it the right choice? Not necessarily. How could I as a writer kill Nick and put Emmy in such a position? Because choices have consequences, and most revolutions aren't bloodless. It's a noble idea, but isn't realistic, and Emmy needed to realize what she was doing wasn't a game without any consequences.


	30. A Very Emmy Chapter

I do not own the rights to Harry Potter. If I did, the origins of metamorphagi and parseltongues would have been explained.

**A Very Emmy Chapter**

The first electronic device Emmy had ever owned was a digital watch. It was a cheap plastic one which would make noises and the screen would flash different colors whenever different buttons were pushed. The color was a bright hot pink, and it was decorated with sparkles and hearts. The watch was gaudy to look at, but Emmy never loved it for the color.

She loved the watch because it was 'Muggle's magic' and not even her older sister Milly had any Muggle magical items. She loved it because at the age of three she wasn't allowed a wand, but could still work the watch without one. When she was older she would love it because of how easy it was to unscrew the back to figure out how it worked. For hours she would stare at the wires and little metal parts that she didn't know the words for. She'd debate whether or not the risk of breaking the watch was worth the gain of knowing how it worked. Several times she had come so close to moving just a wire, but her fear of ruining the watch stopped her. As much as she loved the watch for its 'Muggle's magic' she loved it most of all because it was a present from her grandfather for her third birthday. There'd be other watches to experiment with some day, but none like her grandfather's.

Grandpa Bones as she called him, was probably the most influential figure in young Emmy's life. Not only was he the one who gave her the beloved watch, but he was the one who introduced her to all things Muggle and encouraged a passion in her that rivaled his own. He'd tell Emmy amazing stories about the Muggle world and Muggle magic- how they flew without brooms, traveled in metal horseless carriages, and communicated without owls. One of Emmy's favorite stories was how he met her grandmother, Emily, who Emmy was named after.

* * *

Daniel Bones was born into the large and respected Bones family. While their blood was as pure as the Malfoys, their attitudes toward Muggles and Muggle-borns differed. His family might have been friendly and understanding toward them, but Daniel went further. During summer break he'd dressed as a Muggle and frequented Muggle establishments, one of which was a records shop.

There was one in particular he favored, not for the selection, but for the pretty Muggle clerk named Emily Michaels. Every day he would go in and thumb through the records of bands he didn't know and didn't care about. Perhaps another time and another place he would have been taking every detail in, especially the unmoving pictures on the cover. However, his mindwass consumed by other thoughts such as how he should ask Emily out, and more importantly, _if_.

Every time he approached her he would lose his voice. He became entranced by her beauty, as if he had drink a love potion- her smile, the way her hair changed from brown to a soft red depending on the light, and her warm brown eyes. His courage would always vanish and he would found himself unable to say anything, scurrying away from the store, promising to try again the next day.

Daniel never did manage to summon the courage to ask Emily out. Instead, one day she corned him speaking the words he had failed so many times before to get out. His response was a nod.

After a couple of dates, Daniel's nerves disappeared. Eventually he proposed and told Emily he was a wizard. After a couple demonstrations she accepted the truth and him for what he actually was. Some time after they married, and Emmy's mother, Susan is born.

The story about Daniel Bones and his family grew darker after that. Voldemort rose to power, and started to kill members of his family for supporting the Order of the Phoenix. Edgar, his brother, and Edgar's family was killed during the First War. Amelia, his sister was personally killed by Voldemort during the Second. His beloved wife was not killed by a spell, but by cancer. Shortly after, he was forced to go into hiding with his daughter.

* * *

Emmy could remember her grandfather's voice always breaking up at that part, sparring her from the more horrific details of his past, for she is still a child after all, and doesn't know the truth about war. Then he would cheer up and say, "But then things got better too, for I now have a new Emily."

He was the only member of her family that got away with calling her by her full name, Emily. Everybody else had to call her Emmy, even her parents. The habit started when Milly, her sister who was five at the time, made the announcement one night that she had decided she was no longer an 'Amelia', but a 'Milly'. Her family humored her and started to call her Milly. Emmy who was going through a 'I want to do everything my sister does' phase, then declared she was no longer an 'Emily', but 'Emmy'.

Only their grandfather refused to call Emmy and Milly by their new nicknames, remembering the women they were named after. "One day," he would say, "They'll see that they were given strong names for strong women, and the nicknames no longer fit the strong women they have grown into."

* * *

Even as she was telling her tale to Harry, Emmy still didn't think her grandfather would ever be right about that. It was one of the few things she disagreed with him about. Emily was so formal, so girly... not Emmy in the least.

She doesn't tell Harry that part, thinking it's just one of those things he wouldn't understand. Instead, she moves on to the next part which he would probably be more interested in anyway.

* * *

With both of her parents working for the Ministry, her grandfather would watch Emmy and Milly during the day. Sometimes he would take them over to his best friend's house-Arthur Weasley.

Harry's eyebrows shot up in surprise at that reveal, but they relaxed once Emmy explained what brought them together in the first place- their love of Muggle objects. Arthur had an entire shed devoted to Muggle objects- mostly because his wife refused to have them filling the house- and Emmy would join her grandfather and Arthur in there while her sister would be inside the house playing with the numerous Weasley grandchildren. Arthur would show-off his latest object and the two men would discuss its purpose and how it might work. Emmy would often grow bored during their talks and wander about the small shed, touching everything she could her hands on.

In later years she would reflect that the two reminded her a lot of Ariel and Scuttle from the Little Mermaid-obsessed with gizmos, gadgets, whozits, and whatzits; coming up with the wrong names and what the objects did. Both even had their own 'grottos' where they stashed their Muggle stuff, hiding it from family members who just don't get their strange hobby.

Daniel's stash wasn't in a shed, it was much too big to fit. Before going into hiding, he had bought a flat in London to store his stuff since his home most likely would be destroyed. To ensure nobody came around asking questions, he then modified the memories of the Muggles he dealt with, making it as if the flat never existed.

Her mother never knew about the flat, only Emmy did. Whenever the two had time to themselves, he would apparate them into the flat. She liked the flat better than the shed. There it was just her and her grandfather, nobody else. Those were the brightest days of her childhood.

They ended with her grandfather's death when she was nine. It didn't come as a shock, he had been growing weaker and thinner for some months by that point. Taking the potions the healers pushed at him would have given some more time, but not much. Realizing that he could fight death or welcome it, he decided to use the limited time he had left to get his affairs in order.

One of the things he did was transfer what little documentation existed over to Emmy, and providing her with the key and address since she would have to arrive the Muggle way until she was seventeen. He also transferred a secret Muggle bank account over to Emmy, so she wouldn't have to worry about paying for the flat's electric or Muggle things until she was older as well.

When he finally died, Emmy was devastated. It hadn't come as a shock, but it did affect her deeply, instilling her greatest fear that she would always be alone. Her grandfather was the one person who shared her passion for Muggle things. He didn't completely understand why she preferred electronics and technology objects over others such as rubber ducks which he and Arthur was obsessed with. But to him it didn't matter, and he didn't make Emmy feel strange or an outcast. He took it stride, and encouraged her by acquiring any electronic device he could find.

Emmy didn't think she'd ever find somebody like him again- not even Ash, Nick, or Louis had managed to fill the void left by her grandfather. They had come close, and losing them hurt just as much as losing her grandfather, but it was a different kind of hurt. His death hadn't been unexpected, she had time to prepare for it and say goodbyes. That wasn't the case for Ash, Nick, and Louis. Their deaths and departure came as a shock and were marred by their betrayals.

The next couple years of Emmy's life were uneventful, mostly filler between her younger years and before she went off to Hogwarts. Initially, she was excited about Hogwarts like most eleven year-olds. She read Hogwarts A History, debated whether she would end up in Hufflepuff like her parents, or Gryffindor like her sister. Emmy didn't see herself as a very brave person, so she figured she would most likely end up in Hufflepuff like her parents.

With her eleventh birthday came her letter, and the purchase of her wand- 11 and a half inches, Pine with a phoenix feather core, surprisingly swishy. Her parents offered to get her an owl or a cat, but Emmy declined. It was in her experience that owls were smelly, and cats were too vain for her taste. They chose to come to you only when they felt like it, and you'd better pay attention to them, or they would find other ways. Emmy decided to ask for something else- a laptop. Her parents had been shocked at the request, but had indulged her nonetheless, it wasn't everyday one turned eleven and received their Hogwarts letter after all.

To her surprise the Sorting Hat sorted her into Slytherin after barely touching her head. Her family was surprised, but still sent her congratulations. The fact that she had been sorted into Slytherin didn't bother Emmy that much, she was more bothered by the fact that she hated Hogwarts.

From the moment she crossed the Lake, and stepped into the castle, she loathed the place, feeling as if she was slowly being suffocated. She had even visited Madam Pomfrey who told her that she was simply homesick. As time went on, and she felt worse and worse, she started to realize it wasn't homesickness, but Hogwarts was making her sick.

Worse, her technology wasn't working. She knew that electronics didn't work at Hogwarts, but it wasn't until she saw the blank screen on her watch did that fact sink in. Her wrist as an eleven year-old was much bigger than that of a three year-old, so she started to carry it in a pocket once she outgrew the watch. The blank screen made her realize that Hogwarts killed technology, it killed progress of any kind. Her watch didn't work, her laptop didn't work, students and teachers gave her odd looks when she used pens instead of quills.

She hated Hogwarts and in return, it hated her. That knowledge led to her decision to fake her death, having to do so before December when the Trace would be put on her, tracking her location whenever she performed magic outside of Hogwarts. If she wanted to avoid Hogwarts, she'd also have to avoid the Trace.

The problem was how to fake her death. Emmy didn't really want to die, and knew that she was too young and inexperienced to perform the magic necessary to leave a body behind. Therefore her death had to convince people she was dead, despite the lack of a body. It had to be in such a way that nobody would question it or do much investigation, and no other people would be blamed for it.

The Forbidden Forest was Forbidden for a reason, and Emmy decided to use that reason to her advantage. Her death would be tragic, but also understandable for a wide variety of creatures lived in the Forest that saw a little witch as dinner. The lack of body and evidence would be expected, and nobody would dig any deeper into Emmy's tragic end, she'd serve as a cautionary tale for future students.

The next problem was coming up with a logical reason for her to be in the Forest, and making people aware of the reason. Emmy's affection for Muggle things didn't earn her any friends in Slytherin- they were more open minded than their predecessors, but they still had a long way to go. That left her sister and her group of Gryffindor friends- Frank Longbottom, Molly Weasley, and Nate Hawthorne. Milly had taken it upon herself (and at her parent's request) to ensure that her younger sister settled into Hogwarts, and when it became apparent that Emmy was having issues making friends, she was invited to join Milly's group. It was an offer that was appreciated, but seldom taken advantage of, and only when Emmy was desperate for social interaction, she found Gryffindors to be rather full of themselves and quite annoying.

To Emmy's delight, it was they who came up with her reason for being in the forest. Like typical Gryffindors they were always looking for ways to prove their bravery (or in Emmy's opinion stupidity). Three of the four had parents and relatives who fought in the Second War (Nate was the Muggle-born of the group) and as a result the group felt as if they had a lot to live up to.

To prove their bravery (or stupidity) they would accept dares from one another. Sneak out of the common room at night and avoid detection, make it past the whomping willow and into the Shrieking Shack, pull a prank on one of the teachers. Most of the dares were relatively harmless, until Nate came up with the idea of spending a night in the Forbidden Forest (in all fairness, the idea wasn't his own, Emmy had planted the idea when she pointed out all the times Molly's uncles had gone into the forest and come out alive). The others, knowing the danger but not wanting to appear as cowards, initially agreed to do so, before backing out one by one. Except for Emmy.

Before it was time to leave to go home, Emmy had put her plan into place. She told her sister she was going to the Forest to prove that Slytherins were just as brave as Gryffindors. Her sister had laughed it off, saying Emmy wouldn't even last a hour before she'd be back. Emmy knew that Milly would feel a lot of guilt over the next couple days when it became clear Emmy wasn't going to be returning from the Forest. At the time she justified it because Milly had also laughed off her Muggle-loving behavior with her friends, sharing stories with Molly about how odd Emmy and their grandfathers were. Nate had joined in, sharing a story of his younger brother and how he was the opposite- a Muggle obsessed with all things magic. Emmy rationalized what she was about to put them through would teach them a valuable lesson about not looking down on others for being different.

Emmy tried to limit her time in the Forest. Pieces of her winter coat and robe were strewn about, as were strands of her hair and drops of her blood. Just because there wasn't going to be a body, didn't mean there couldn't be any trace of Emmy, that would be a bit too far-fetched. Careful to avoid being dragged off and meeting the fate that she was only playing at, she slowly scattered things about, keeping an eye out for any unwanted company.

Her ears were alert as well, listening for anything other than the wind and her own breath. She heard a couple twigs snap occasionally, causing her to freeze. Dusk was falling, but she was still able to make out a flash of white fur behind some bushes, standing out in contrast against the dark browns and greens. It was a unicorn, not one of the Forest's most dangerous creatures.

Emmy released the breath she had been holding and continued her work. There was one final touch- a personal object that her family knew she would never leave behind- her watch. Her watch was more precious to her than her wand, but unlike her wand it was useless. From what Emmy had read, once Hogwarts affected an electrical item, there was no restoring it. By the time she knew that, it was too late- her watch and laptop were nothing more than paperweights.

It was for that reason that leaving her watch behind wasn't such a hard decision. She had an entire flat awaiting her full of electronic devices that her grandfather had acquired just for her. Besides, her watch was taken from where when she entered Hogwarts. With her wand she could make a watch and other electronics that could withstand Hogwart's influence. If she'd ever returned to Hogwarts, it would be on her own terms, and to conquer it.

* * *

From the Forest she quickly made her way to Hogsmeade and then to London, careful to avoid anybody that might later remember her.

She lived the next couple years in her grandfather's flat, learning more about electronics and even creating some of her own devices such as the Eyes of Argus and her holograms. Emmy couldn't remember when exactly she came up with the idea of the Order of Prometheus, but as she started outlining her goals, she realized she would need some help.

During those years she had gotten used to being alone, but she would soon make new friends. One was Nate's little brother, the one who was laughed at for being a Muggle obsessed with magic. Emmy figured he might want revenge on the wizarding world just as much as she did. Through public records she tracked him down to a boarding school where she first approached him. His name was Nick, and he introduced her to another ally- Ash.

Together the three would make up the principle members of the Order and go on to break into Gringotts, hi-jack the Hogwarts Express, recruit new members, release the Manifesto, and attempt an attack on the Winter Games. Emmy would return to Hogwarts and face one of her fears, conquering it. She would watch Nick die in front of her, discover what he and Ash had been up to when she wasn't paying attention, learn Louis was actually Teddy, and set-up Ash before destroying the evidence of her and Nick's crimes- and all in one day.

* * *

When she was done, Emmy sat quietly, waiting for Harry to respond.

"That was quite some story. It confirms what we knew about you."

Emmy's eyebrows scrunched up in confusion and horror. What did he mean by we? And what exactly did they know?

Harry answered her questions before she could voice them aloud. "Do you remember Coke's Worth? I had Darren- I'm assuming you know Darren as well- set up surveillance on the town and the Civic Center once we knew the Order was training there. Three people with no apparent connections to the town kept popping up, all with fake identities, but with real ones that were easy to track down-except for one."

Emmy was in awe. She had thought she had all her bases covered in the town, that with the Eyes of Argus she saw all. They had managed to outsmart her, by setting up their own system that was independent (she was assuming it was independent, otherwise she would have known about it) of the government's without her even knowing. Emmy had truly underestimated the Golden Boy.

"Louis running into me in December wasn't an accident then."

"No, that was an accident. Luckily he spotted you before you spotted him, allowing him to take advantage of the opportunity to follow you. He followed you back to the complex where you lived. After some inquiries we discovered one flat with a peculiar past of being forgotten and belonging to a member of the Bones family, Daniel. Things fell into place once Louis learned your birthday, and that your real name was Emmy, which could be a nickname for Emily. Daniel Bones had a granddaughter named Emily MacMillan who supposedly died during her first year at Hogwarts. So far everything you have told me is the truth, but I do have one question."

"What?"

"If magic and electronics don't mix, then how is it you can use them without ruining them?"

He really was smarter than Emmy ever gave him credit for. Nobody had asked her that question before. Ash and Nick simply assumed she had found her own way around the issue, or they might not have even cared. Emmy would never get the chance to ask them.

"Emmy," said Harry after she still hadn't responded, "My godson is a metamorphagi, for the first part of my life I could talk to snakes, and one of my closest friends uses a pink umbrella for a wand. In fact, there are many types of magic that we know of that don't involve swishing and flicking a wand."

"I don't know how to explain it..." answered Emmy finally. "You know how some people are better at certain types of magic- charms, transfiguration, wandless magic and so on?" Harry nodded and she continued. "And it's not them, it's their magic that can be odd, and my magic is odd too..."

"It allows you to work with electronics without damaging them, probably in such a way that are you naturally drawn to them and have always been."

"Sounds stupid, doesn't it?"

Harry leaned forward on his chair to get closer to Emmy. "What most wizards forget about magic, is that while it does not change, our understanding of it does. It explains your dislike of Hogwarts which is full of ancient and traditional magic which goes against your type of magic which is attracted to electronics." He sat back up and then said, "My guess is that you inherited it from your grandfather who never managed to understand it like you have. It also explains quite a bit about Arthur as well and his obsession with Muggle things, particularly how he managed to get that car to fly and develop a personality of its own..."

His voice drifted off, thinking about something else. Emmy didn't know what car he was talking about, but she did know of the stories concerning a mysterious car that lurked in the Forbidden Forest with connections to Harry Potter and a Weasley. Now that she thought of it, she also remembered that her grandfather once talked about a car with Arthur, but was fuzzy on the details.

"So what now?" asked Emmy. She had decided to put off recalling that memory for later. In her future she would no doubt have a lot of time with nothing else to do at Azkaban.

Brought back to the present, Harry smiled at her. "I think you might be pleased to hear that you won't be sent to Azkaban. That doesn't mean you won't be punished," he said, noting the look of relief that was spreading on her face. "I have no doubt sending you to Azkaban would only leave you more bitter than you already are, plotting your revenge and waiting to escape to cause more chaos in the future, and perhaps even succeeding. The Minister was inclined to agree, and luckily the Wizengamot wasn't too keen on prosecuting a teenager. Shacklebolt managed to convince them that they should offer a deal since you did save the children that had been kidnapped and had refrained the Order from using violence."

"The souls found their way back?"

"Yes, and my daughter, and Teddy as well," replied Harry. Knowing that her actions had saved the children made Emmy feel a little better, even news about Teddy made her feel happier. She wasn't going to Azkaban, wasn't going to get her soul sucked out by a dementor, things were looking up. Then Harry brought her back down again.

"Your friend however, Astrid Nott was less fortunate. She and most of the Knights of Camelot died during a stand-off, but you already knew that was the most likely outcome when you sent her to them."

So, Ash was dead. It wasn't a shock like Nick's, Emmy had planned it after all. What a cruel world it was- the only plan of hers that worked in the past couple months involved Ash dying.

"Now, about your punishment..."

****Author's Note****

I'd like to Lizzie Pixie-Aiko, Joshua, and Wise Girl16 for reviews. They are always appreciated and I will respond to signed ones. Joshua, I'm glad you've enjoyed the story and how I manage to turn it around. I think Harry has learned a lot about people from Dumbledore and Snape during his younger years. I tried reflecting that in the last chapter, having him channel Dumbledore and all the talks Harry had with him.

I'm honestly surprised nobody has asked me about Emmy's magic working with electronics before, especially after the Yeong chapter and showing what the South Koreans had come up with. So now you know the answer, which I hope makes sense and doesn't make Emmy too much of a Mary-Sue. I tried to keep it as basic and believable as possible. My reasoning is that if a person can talk to snakes, what other magical abilities are out there that we don't know about? It also explains Arthur obsession with Muggle things and how he might have gotten the Angelia to work while not understanding how a telephone or rubber duck worked.

Emmy is the daughter of Susan Bones and Ernie MacMillan. Both were Hufflepuffs and members of Dumbledore's Army fighting in the final battle. Their fates are unknown, so I came up with my own. Also, it is canon that Susan is a half-blood, and that Susan's aunt Amelia and uncle Edgar where killed as described in the chapter. Her parents aren't mentioned, but since she's a half-blood that's related to wizards through the Bones side of the family, I figured it was safe to assume her mother was a Muggle and a father a wizard. I would also like to add that Milly, Nate, Molly, and Frank were all featured early on in the story, in chapter 3. Milly was also the unnamed Gryffindor prefect in chapter 9.

Emmy's punishment and what happens to her will be concluded in next week's chapter which is also the last. There'll also be some more answers for any final questions or threads dangled throughout the story.


	31. Prometheus's Gift

I do not own the rights to Harry Potter. If I did I wouldn't be writing fanfiction.

**Prometheus's Gift**

Six months had passed since she had talked to Harry Potter and her life changed once more. Whether it was for the better or for the worse, Emmy hadn't decided yet.

Her punishment consisted of several parts. She would not be sentenced to Azkaban (according to Harry it'd only be a matter of time before she escaped and sought revenge, the wizarding world did not need another Bellatrix) and would not have her wand snapped in half (not that it would have made a difference to Emmy).

The terms of her sentence were as follows:

1. A Trace would be put on Emmy tracking her movements and use of magic until she turned 21 that the Aurors would monitor.

2. If she went anywhere other than her home or the Ministry, she was to have either a parent, Auror, or previously approved witch/wizard with her. Otherwise the Trace would send an alert to the Aurors and she would be sent to Azkaban.

3. Breaking any Muggle or wizarding laws (unless there was an immediate threat to persons or property) would result in being sent to Azkaban.

4. Remove Darren's curse.

5. She was to work under Darren's new Department: Muggle Relations. It consisted of two Bureau's: the Bureau of Muggle Monitoring and Technology Integration- which had been the previous name for the Department before it was expanded- and the Bureau of Muggle Outreach and Education.

The purpose of the Bureau of Muggle Monitoring and Technology Integration was to keep the Ministry up to date on Muggle technology and ensure they were one step ahead of the technology to prevent the detection of wizardy. If any Muggles did learn about magic accidentally, Oblivators would be sent to their location to modify their memory. The Bureau was also responsible for detecting any plots against the Muggle and wizard government- plots such as Emmy's or Erik's- and then informing the Aurors who would determine how serious the plot was, and which government should deal with it.

The Bureau of Muggle Outreach and Education was added during the two days Emmy was asleep after she set the Gringotts vault on fire. Harry hadn't sat around twiddling his thumbs waiting for her to wake up. He had to deal with all the other Order members who had been captured, interviewing them, and deciding their fates.

Using a paintball gun wasn't against any law. Technically, neither was being a member of the Order of Prometheus. Plotting against the Ministry of Magic and planning to break the Statue of Secrecy was. However, none of the Order members who were captured actually did any plotting or planning- that was all Emmy, Ash, and Nick. Because Harry had moved up the ambush on the Order from Emmy's planned date of May 2nd to March when the Order would be training at Sherwood, the Ministry didn't have much of a case against the majority of the Order members. If they had actually gotten as far as attacking the Ministry, there would have been a case. An anonymous tip (the tip had come from Devin Swick who told his brother Bradley who told Ginny at the Prophet he heard it from a reliable source- he was a loyal Hufflepuff after all) had come claiming that the Order was behind the attacks on the Muggle-borns, and Harry and the other Aurors decided that waiting until May wasn't a risk they could take. Who knew how many more children would be attacked before then? Besides, if the Order was actually behind the attacks, then the Ministry would have its case against the Order members.

In the end, none of the people actually responsible for the attacks were captured alive. The two remaining Swick brothers with their friend Andrew Stock met a fate similar to Nick's. They chose to fight rather than stand down, and the wizards they were facing panicked. Unlike Hubert MacGuffin, they didn't cast Avada Kedavra. The spell they cast was known as an Area of Effect spell-discovered in the past decade by Felix White- and based on the power of the user could affect several wizards within several feet of each other. All three Aurors used different versions at roughly the same moment. The result was a large crater in front of them, and the wizards counting themselves lucky for only escaping with their eyebrows and hair singed off.

That incident and Hubert's had prompted an investigation and the realization that Muggle technology wasn't the only thing that was important for wizards to know. Education about the Muggle's way of life was vital as well. If Harry had bothered to explain the difference between a paintball gun and an a actual gun to his Aurors, than maybe four more people would be alive, even if they were criminals.

That realization had brought about the Bureau of Muggle Outreach and Education. Muggle Studies at Hogwarts wasn't doing its job, and was to be abolished. In its place the following school year would be the mandatory course Muggle and Wizard Relations. It would teach Muggle-borns important things about the wizarding world they might not know otherwise such as how wizards lived, and would pure-bloods and half-bloods Muggle history and technology more realistically than Muggle Studies ever had. At first the idea had been to divide the pure-bloods, half-bloods, and Muggle-borns up, but Harry insisted it was vital for the students to work together and the time for being divided was over. Lila Hopkins was quite excited at finally teaching a serious course (Muggle Studies was considered a joke by students and facility members alike) and had been working closely with Darren for developing a curriculum at the Bureau.

Another aspect of the Bureau's duties was to keep an eye out for Muggle-borns. It had been the Muggle sibling of a wizard who had noticed the pattern of unusual and unexplained occurrences in the children's past, and alerted the Ministry to the fact that the children might be Muggle-borns. If it hadn't been for that tip, than the connection might have never been made, the attack wouldn't have upped, and more children could have been attacked. Worse was the possibility the children who already been kidnapped might have eventually died from being without their soul for so long.

Harry had made the members of the Order a deal: they wouldn't be arrested and punished, as long as they kept out an eye for Muggle-born or other magical incidents and reported them to the Ministry. It was also up to them rather than Hogwarts' staff who would inform Muggle-borns of their magical status on their eleventh birthday. Squibs and Muggles could relate easier to the Muggle-borns and know how to ease them into the wizarding world. A staff member would accompany them, but only to perform magic and prove its existence to doubting Muggles.

There was one other purpose for the Bureau. Harry had sworn Emmy to secrecy (she laughed once she realized she was sworn to secrecy about secrecy), but he, Darren, Teddy, and Shacklebolt had spoken a while ago about the consequences of breaking the Statute of Secrecy. It had been placed into effect in order to protect Muggles from their selves. It had been centuries since witches were born, and Muggles were more open and accepting now. Some might still be prejudiced against magic, but as Darren had pointed out, there were even more who would be ecstatic with the knowledge.

Furthermore, there was quite the number of Muggles who already knew about magic. Parents, siblings, and relatives of Muggle-borns. Spouses and children of Squibs. The population was small, but growing. Roughly 20 Muggle-borns joined Hogwarts each year. 20 Muggle-borns multiplied by 1.75 (the majority, but not all had two parents) multiplied by 2 (for siblings and other relatives) came out to 70 Muggles a year who learned about magic. That meant for first year through seventh year Muggle-born Hogwarts students, there were 490 Muggles who now knew about magic. Taking into account that Muggles could live well into their 80's, 90's and 100's, (more than triple the life expectancy when the Statue was put into place) there were between 5600-7000 Muggles living who knew about magic.

That wasn't taking into account their spouses, or their children knowing about magic. For how else could they explain when their little niece/nephew, or even their own child did something unnatural? Assuming that at least half of the Muggle siblings married and had at least one child, that upped the number to between 11,200-14,000 living Muggles or more knowing about magic just in the United Kingdom alone. And that wasn't even accounting for Squibs and all the Muggles they told.

Once Harry and the others did the math, they realized that the number of Muggles who knew about magic could make up the population of a small city, even though only being 0.01% of the total United Kingdom population. Muggles were living longer, were more accepting of differences, and were starting to pay more attention to the world around them. The Ministry might not like it, but they would have to prepare for the eventuality of the Statute of Secrecy failing and wizards living openly among Muggles. The percentage was small, but humans were known for not being able to keep secrets for long. With each Muggle that learned about magic came the possibility of them telling it to more Muggles, even those they had no right to tell and might not take them seriously.

It was a scary and unnerving idea, but Teddy pointed out maybe it was time for wizards to stop hiding themselves. Cutting themselves off from Muggles had nearly caused their downfall on a number of occasions What would have happened if the Axis had successfully invaded Great Britain during World War II? What would have happen if the Cold War had escalated to the point where even Great Britain was attacked by nuclear weapons? What if Muggles hadn't realized they needed to change their lifestyles to fight global warming? What if one wizard became infected with a Muggle super-virus and spread it to others?

Wizards didn't have spells that could protect them from nukes, knew nothing about the ozone layer and global warming, or Muggle viruses. Emmy and the Order of Prometheus was a wake-up call to how lucky wizards had been so far, but their luck would run out eventually.

Joining Muggles would be a huge step, and had to be a gradual one. Harry confided in Emmy it was a process that would take years, decades, or even centuries. By slowly introducing the idea to each new generation that Muggles and wizards could co-exist with each other, the worlds would be that much closer. With each generation, the older wizards who might object would be gone and replaced with more open minded ones. With each new generation, would be more Muggles who knew of the truth and accepted it.

So, in a way, one of Emmy's goal would come to pass. It just wouldn't be as soon as she might have liked.

Emmy would mainly be working under the Bureau of Muggle Monitoring and Technology Integration for that was where her skills where. Since Darren was now in charge of two Bureau's, he no longer had time to teach his staff how to use computers and technology. That was Emmy's job, and like Darren, she had to learn how to teach others and not lose her patience. After the first couple days of that, she understood what she had made Darren go through and how awful it must have been dealing with wizards who thought a mouse was a pet and the world wide web was some sort of potions ingredient.

There were still more conditions of Emmy's deal.

6. Turn over the Eyes of Argus and any other inventions or devices to Darren for the Ministry to use.

Sharing her toys was even worse than sharing her knowledge about computers with wizards, but she did it just the same.

The fact that Darren oohed and ahhed over them, made it easier. For once she was around somebody that got her and appreciated her genius. He also easily forgot his grudge and anger at her for everything he put her through, something she had worried about, especially once she realized how bad the curse must have been.

7. Explain what happened to Ash, Nick, the Swicks, and Andrew Stock to their families and her role in their deaths.

That had been even harder than turning over her toys. For the Swicks and Stock she managed to get away with sending them a letter since she hardly knew them, but for Ash and Nick she had to go to their families in person- she owed them at least that much. Both families did nothing but stare at her, before shooing her out of their homes and telling her never to return. Their children had made their own choices, but it was easier to blame Emmy than the dead. It was a reaction she was expecting.

The most awkward part was the fact that her sister was currently going out with Nick's brother. Unlike his parents though, he didn't blame Emmy for her part in his death. He had known of his brother's bitterness toward magic for years, while his parents ignored the signs. The fact that Nick ended up joining the Order didn't surprise him at all.

On the subject of family, Emmy was still in the process of adjusting to hers. Her parents had been shocked, than overjoyed to learn she was alive. Her mother had lost so many family members in her life, it took three months before she would accepted that Emmy was back for good, and it wasn't a dream.

To Emmy's surprise, Harry hadn't told them or the wizarding world the extent of what Emmy had done. Yes she had been part of the Order and had been responsible for all the technology attacks. But she was also responsible for ending the Order and saving the Muggle-borns. The fact that she was the one who started the Order in the first place was known to just a few. Emmy was okay with that.

Having curfews, and being monitored constantly sucked, but she was with her family again at least. Her family who regretted driving Emmy away and missing the signs of her unhappiness and magic. They were even considerate enough to start incorporating more Muggle devices into their home and let Emmy teach them how to use the telly, a mobile, or a computer. Her work with them early on gave Emmy the experience and patience she needed to teach the wizards at the Bureau.

In return (and out of her own guilt) Emmy helped around the house with chores and did her best to be the dutiful daughter she never had been, and to appreciate her family and magic. The last six months had passed awkwardly with both sides getting to know each other again, but Emmy had never felt closer to her parents. Maybe even someday she would tell them everything she had done.

8. Be tutored by Minerva McGonagall in the afternoon.

Going back to Hogwarts was not an option. Even with Emmy's devices and advancements with her magic, it still held bad memories and the parents of students might not react favorably to a member of the Order being present. They might not know the full truth, but they knew enough to not want her around their children.

However, Emmy only had one semester's worth of education and had a lot to learn and make-up, Shacklebolt wouldn't let her work at the Ministry unless she continued her education in some way. It wasn't fair for wizards to educate themselves about the Muggle world, while Emmy could remain ignorant of the wizarding world and get by on one semester's knowledge.

Harry managed to convince McGonagall to come out of retirement. She was the one person he knew who would have the patience (after dealing with the Marauder's, Fred and George, the Golden Trio, and headstrong Gryffindors over the decades and being Headmistress of Hogwarts, all which required tremendous amounts of patience) to deal with Emmy who hadn't had a teacher in years. McGonagall might have been the Transfiguration professor, but she was also proficient in all of Hogwart's courses- receiving Outstanding's in all of her O.W.L.S. and N.E.W.T.S.

Emmy had heard stories of McGonagall from her parents, but was surprised to learn she was a half-blood who had tried her best to keep up with her Muggle side. She won Emmy's respect by making a deal with her: if Emmy would try her best to learn Charms, Transfiguration, Potions, Defense Against the Dark Arts, History of Magic and Herbology, McGonagall would try her best to learn about computers and electronics.

It was a smart move on McGonagall's part, especially since Emmy hadn't planned on taking the classes seriously. She had a job (of sorts) and once she was 21 could work in the Muggle world if she had too, so learning magic didn't seem necessary. She understood the theory behind it, but had only agreed to attending the lessons, not actually trying her best at them. McGonagall had been wise enough to realize the mistake on Harry's part and rectified her. She was also genuinely interested in learning new things, even if the were of the Muggle variety.

9. Set up a school or institution similar to Yeong's for any Hogwarts' students who shared Emmy's ability.

The last was a condition suggested by Emmy, who didn't want anybody else to go through what she had. Harry had to get approval from Shacklebolt, but didn't think there would be an issue. So far there weren't any students, but Emmy wasn't surprised. From the research Harry and Darren had done on her ability, it seemed as rare as being born a metamorphagi, just one or two every generation or so. But if any students were discovered, she and the Ministry would be ready for them.

* * *

During the six months, Emmy had gotten into a routine. Get up in the morning, have breakfast with her parents, Floo with them to the Ministry, be greeted by Darren, work, have lunch, be tutored by McGonagall, return home with her parents, have supper and do homework. Repeat. On weekends, skip the Ministry part, and spend the day at home with her parents.

Her co-workers respected what she could do and would go to her if they had any questions, but they were still wary of her due to her young age and being a member of the Order. That meant only associating with her at the office, and not out. Darren was the friendliest of the bunch, mostly because of their shared interests. He tried including her in stuff outside of the Ministry with his Muggle friends despite the age difference, but Emmy always declined, saying she had homework.

It was a weak excuse, but Emmy wasn't ready to share the real reason. Her age was part of it, but losing Ash and Nick was a bigger part. Emmy didn't know if she deserved new friends or happiness after what she had done to her last ones. It felt wrong, like she was replacing them in a way. Also, she may have been punished in the eyes of the Ministry, but not in her eyes.

Harry didn't require it, but Emmy had learned the names of all the Muggles who died during the KoC attack with Ash and read the details one day at work. A total of 17 people were dead by her hand- 5 members of the Order, 12 members of the KoC. They had parents, siblings, and friends who cared about them. They had lives, hopes and dreams, and were not planning on dying that day. Except they had, thanks to Emmy in one way or another. They weren't faceless pawns on a chessboard to be sacrificed for the greater good, but flesh and blood.

She reminded herself of that fact everyday, and vowed not to have their deaths be in vain. They would be her incentive to not turn out like Erik, to think twice before she did something, to remember actions have consequences, and to try her best to improve the world.

Besides Darren, Teddy had reached out to her. Unlike Darren, Emmy tried her best to avoid Teddy. Whenever she saw him approaching her in the hallways or in the office, she went in the opposite direction or would hide in closets, behind people, under tables- it wasn't dignified, but she wasn't ready to face him. He would always be Louis, and remembering everything they had done together, all the secrets she had confided in him, and her growing feelings made her embarrassed and angry at the same time. He had used her, and probably didn't care about her anyway.

Emmy couldn't run from Teddy forever, and he cornered her in the lift one day.

"Look, I know you're angry, and I would be too, but I wanted to explain why I did what I did."

Since Emmy couldn't run from him, she decided to ignore him and stare at the lift door in front of her. Was it childish? Yes. Did she care? No.

Realizing that Emmy wasn't going to answer, Teddy decided to continue anyway. "My parents died when I was a baby because they weren't willing to live under a cruel tyrant who thought his beliefs were the best for everybody. I wasn't about to allow them to die to stop one tyrant, only for another to be allowed to rise up. At the time I didn't know who you were or what you had been through, I just knew that the Order was a threat to the Ministry and might result in more children losing their parents. I couldn't allow that; I couldn't deal with losing anymore of the people I love. Do you understand?"

Emmy did understand, but she still refused to say anything. The door finally opened, but Louis followed Emmy out and down the hallway. A couple turns later, she still hadn't managed to shake Teddy, and she was at a dead end.

Teddy took advantage of the fact that she was trapped. "Look, I know you have to care about me somewhat, otherwise you wouldn't have let me and Lily go. That's why I want to give you these."

Out of his robes, Teddy pulled a large envelope and shoved it into her hands. "Darren said he was going through your history on your computer to see what you've been up to and noticed that you been reading a lot on the KoC members who died with your friend. Yes, people died because of you, but they also lived. The envelope contains the names of all the children you saved, including thank-you's from them and their families."

She had been so fixtuated on the deaths she was responsible for, it never occurred to her to check on the children she had saved.

"Anyway, I just thought you deserved to know it's okay to smile and laugh. You go around looking as if you've been given a death sentence, and while it's good you feel some level of guilt, it's alright to live Emmy. You may be in a villain to some, but to these children you're a hero. I'll leave you alone now and won't bother you again, but I hope you remember that and that you do deserve to be happy."

With his speech done, Teddy started to walk away. Emmy opened the envelope and saw several pages. Some contained drawings and were obviously written by children. Others were written more professionally, most likely written by the parents. Flipping through the pages, she saw there was even one from Lily and her parents, and one from Teddy and his fiancee.

17 people were dead because of her, but a total of 8 were alive. Not as many as the dead, but it was 8 more than there might be otherwise. Maybe Teddy was right, maybe she did deserve happiness after all.

"Wait," Emmy cried. "Would you like to go out for lunch sometime? I mean, just as friends. Victoire can come too."

Teddy smiled. "I'd like that, and I'm sure she would too. Did you know that when you were a first year, I was a sixth year? We could have passed by each other in the hallway and never noticed each other."

That fact had occurred to Emmy, and the only reason why she knew of Teddy from first year was because her sister had a crush on the sixth year Gryffindor who was also Harry Potter's grandson and a metamorphagi at the time. Her sister had out-grown it, but the memory was still fresh in Emmy's mind. It was the first time she knew of a wizard who had magic that wasn't common, and made her realize maybe hers wasn't common as well.

She didn't tell Teddy that, though. No reason for him to learn all of her secrets. "It's possible," she said casually.

"Alright, I'll check with Victoire and get back to you."

"Sounds good," replied Emmy. "Maybe we could even invite Darren and some others."

"Sure, the more the merrier."

Merry. Emmy hadn't been merry in a long time. The last time had been when she was plotting against the Ministry, and now she was working for them. How odd. Working for the Ministry was something Emmy would have never thought possible- yet she was. Emmy never would have thought she could be merry again, so maybe she was wrong about that too.

Perhaps she was wrong about something else as well. Perhaps Prometheus's Gift of fire hadn't been a bad thing for humanity or a good thing. Perhaps it had really been the knowledge of how to use it and how to tell the difference between the two.

Either way, Emmy didn't mind being wrong, not like she used to. If it meant being a hero and not a villain, being happy with friends and not alone, and valuing people rather than dismissing them, Emmy didn't mind at all.

For there were some things even technology couldn't do. Like forgive and love.

****Author's Note****

And I'm done! Please excuse the lateness of this chapter, I had the hardest time starting it, and once I did start I couldn't stop.

I'd like to thank Guest, LizziePixie-Aiko, BrokenRainbowShatteredDreams , and Wise Girl16 for reviewing last chapter. Guest, I never heard of that theory, but do like it. Electronics at Hogwarts wouldn't have been an issue until the 20th century, and I can't see many of the teachers appreciating Muggle music. Also, there is an issue with Arthur not knowing how a car works. And how come he never listened to his own advice? "Never trust something if you can't see where its brain is?" The car seemed able to think for itself, but where is its brain?

I'd also like to thank all the readers, followers, reviewers, who have stuck with this story. It might not have gotten some of the traffic other HP stories get, but it's my most successful one.

I think I answered any lingering questions people might have about this story, though if you have any I didn't answer, leave a review or PM me. I tried to end it on an upbeat note, while being realistic just the same.

McGonagall really is a half-blood according to canon. Felix White and the Area of Effect spell are my own.

Thanks for reading, and if possible, please leave one last review.


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